|
Amended
IN
Senate
March 25, 2026 |
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION
Senate Bill
No. 1159
| Introduced by Senator Cabaldon (Coauthors: Senators Allen, Jones, Ochoa Bogh, and Weber Pierson) |
February 18, 2026 |
An act to amend Sections 7920.520, 11405.70, 11500, and 82047 of, and to add Section 17.5 to Sections 11121.5, 11342.575, 11370.1.5, and 54951.5 to, the Government Code, and to amend Section 21066 of the Public Resources Code, relating to artificial intelligence.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 1159, as amended, Cabaldon.
Artificial intelligence: transparency and governance.
The California Constitution provides that people have the right of access to information concerning the conduct of the people’s business. Various provisions of existing law, including the California Public Records Act, the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act, and the Ralph M. Brown Act, provide, with some exceptions, for public access to government records and meetings of government bodies. Among those acts, the California Public Records Act defines “person” to include any natural person, corporation, partnership, limited liability company, firm, or association.
Existing law, the Political Reform Act of 1974, imposes various requirements and limitations with respect to the conduct of public officials, campaign expenditures and disclosures, political advertisements, lobbying, the ballot pamphlet, and other aspects of political reform. The act defines
“person” to mean an individual, proprietorship, firm, partnership, joint venture, syndicate, business trust, company, corporation, limited liability company, association, committee, and any other organization or group of persons acting in concert.
Existing law, the Administrative Procedure Act, governs, among other things, the procedures for the adoption, amendment, or repeal of regulations by state agencies and for the review of those regulatory actions by the Office of Administrative Law.
Existing law, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA defines “person” to include any person,
firm, association, organization, partnership, business, trust, corporation, limited liability company, company, district, county, city and county, city, town, and, among other things, the state.
This bill would specify that, for purposes of the California Public Records Act, the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act, the Ralph M. Brown Act, the Political Reform Act of 1974, the Administrative Procedure Act, and CEQA, “person,” “interested person,” “participant,” “member of the public,” as applicable, and any other similar terms under each act referring to those who may engage with governmental agencies, do not include artificial intelligence, as defined, systems, autonomous agents, robots, or other nonhuman entities, whether physical or digital. The bill would make findings and declarations related to these provisions.
The California Constitution requires local agencies, for the purpose of ensuring public access to
the meetings of public bodies and the writings of public officials and agencies, to comply with a statutory enactment that amends or enacts laws relating to public records or open meetings and contains findings demonstrating that the enactment furthers the constitutional requirements relating to this purpose.
This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
(a) (1) Subdivision (b) of Section 3 of Article 1 of the California Constitution establishes that “the people have the right of access to information concerning the conduct of the people’s business.” California’s transparency and governance laws, including the Administrative Procedure Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 11370), Chapter 4.5 (commencing with Section 11400), and Chapter 5 (commencing with Section 11500) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code), the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act (Article 9 (commencing with Section 11120) of Chapter 1 of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code), the California Environmental Quality Act (Division 13 (commencing with Section 21000) of the Public Resources Code), the California Public Records Act (Division 10 (commencing with Section 7920.000) of Title 1 of the Government Code), the Political Reform Act of 1974 (Title 9 (commencing with Section 81000) of the Government Code), and the Ralph M. Brown Act (Chapter 9 (commencing with Section 54950) of Part 1 of Division 2 of Title 5 of the Government Code), implement this constitutional mandate by enabling natural persons to participate in and observe governmental processes.(2) Artificial intelligence (AI) systems can now be programmed to automatically and continuously engage with governmental processes at scales and speeds that far exceed human capacity. AI systems have the ability to submit thousands or millions of automated public
records requests, generate mass public comments on proposed regulations, file automated petitions for rulemaking, or otherwise flood governmental agencies with interactions that simulate human participation but lack genuine human deliberation or judgment.
(3) Automated mass engagement would overwhelm government agencies, divert limited public resources from serving actual constituents, drown out genuine human participation, and transform deliberative processes into meaningless exchanges with machines. Public comment periods would become ineffective if agencies must process thousands of AI-generated submissions, and the administrative burden would undermine the purpose of California’s transparency laws. This threat is not theoretical. In the United Kingdom, AI-powered platforms have already enabled automated generation of planning
objections, prompting warnings from experts that such systems will overwhelm public agencies.
(4) California’s transparency and governance laws referenced in paragraph (1) presuppose participants who possess consciousness, moral agency, deliberative judgment, and membership in the political community. AI systems, regardless of their sophistication, lack these essential attributes of personhood. Consistent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s November 2025 guidance recognizing that AI systems are tools to support human activity rather than independent actors, and with the European Union’s AI Act adopted in 2024 protecting the fundamental rights of natural persons, California law maintains the distinction between human beings and artificial intelligence.
(b) Therefore, it is the intent of the Legislature to clarify that, for purposes of California’s transparency and governance laws referenced in subdivision (a), the terms “person,” “interested person,” “member of the public,” and any other similar terms referring to those who may engage with governmental agencies under those laws, refer to natural persons and legally recognized entities capable of genuine participation in democratic governance, not AI systems that could be programmed to simulate participation at scales that would overwhelm governmental processes.
(c) The changes made by this act are not to be construed to imply that the terms “person,” “interested person,” “participant,” “member of the public,” and any other similar terms as used in any law other than those laws referenced
in subdivision (a) include artificial intelligence systems, autonomous agents, robots, or other nonhuman entities, whether physical or digital.
(a)For purposes of all of the following acts, the terms “person,” “interested person,” “participant,” “member of the public,” as applicable, and any other similar terms under each act referring to those who may engage with governmental agencies, do not include artificial intelligence systems, autonomous agents, robots, or other nonhuman entities, whether physical or digital:
(1)The California Public Records Act (Division 10 (commencing with Section 7920.000) of Title 1).
(2)The Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act (Article 9 (commencing with Section 11120) of Chapter 1 of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2).
(3)The Administrative Procedure Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 11370), Chapter 4.5 (commencing with Section 11400), and Chapter 5 (commencing with Section 11500) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2).
(4)The Ralph M. Brown Act (Chapter 9 (commencing with Section 54950) of Part 1 of Division 2 of Title 5).
(5)The Political Reform Act of 1974 (Title 9 (commencing with Section 81000)).
(6)The California Environmental Quality Act (Division 13 (commencing with Section 21000) of the Public Resources Code).
(b)For purposes of this section,
“artificial intelligence” means an engineered or machine-based system that varies in its level of autonomy and that can, for explicit or implicit objectives, infer from the input it receives how to generate outputs that can influence physical or virtual environments.
SEC. 2.
Section 7920.520 of the Government Code is amended to read:7920.520.
(a) As used in this division, “person” includes any natural person, corporation, partnership, limited liability company, firm, or association.(b) (1) “Person,” “interested person,” “member of the public,” and any other similar terms referring to those who may engage with governmental agencies under this division do not include artificial intelligence systems, autonomous agents, robots, or other nonhuman entities, whether physical or digital.
(2) For purposes of this subdivision, “artificial intelligence” means an engineered or machine-based system that varies in its level of autonomy and that can, for explicit or implicit objectives, infer from the input it receives how to generate outputs that can influence physical or virtual environments.
SEC. 3.
Section 11121.5 is added to the Government Code, to read:11121.5.
(a) As used in this article, “person,” “interested person,” “participant,” ”member of the public,” and any other similar terms referring to those who may engage with governmental agencies under this chapter do not include artificial intelligence systems, autonomous agents, robots, or other nonhuman entities, whether physical or digital.(b) For purposes of this section, “artificial intelligence” means an engineered or machine-based system that varies in its level of autonomy and that can, for explicit or implicit objectives, infer from the input it receives how to generate outputs that can influence physical or virtual environments.
SEC. 4.
Section 11342.575 is added to the Government Code, to read:11342.575.
(a) “Person,” “interested person,” “member of the public,” and any other similar terms referring to those who may engage with governmental agencies under this chapter do not include artificial intelligence systems, autonomous agents, robots, or other nonhuman entities, whether physical or digital.(b) For purposes of this section, “artificial intelligence” means an engineered or machine-based system that varies in its level of autonomy and that can, for explicit or implicit objectives, infer from the input it receives how to generate outputs that can influence physical or virtual environments.
SEC. 5.
Section 11370.1.5 is added to the Government Code, to read:11370.1.5.
(a) As used in this chapter, “person” and any other similar terms referring to those who may engage with governmental agencies under this chapter do not include artificial intelligence systems, autonomous agents, robots, or other nonhuman entities, whether physical or digital.(b) For purposes of this section, “artificial intelligence” means an engineered or machine-based system that varies in its level of autonomy and that can, for explicit or implicit objectives, infer from the input it receives how to generate outputs that can influence physical or virtual environments.
SEC. 6.
Section 11405.70 of the Government Code is amended to read:11405.70.
(a) “Person” includes an individual, partnership, corporation, governmental subdivision or unit of a governmental subdivision, or public or private organization or entity of any character.(b) (1) “Person,” “interested person,” “participant,” ”member of the public,” and any other similar terms referring to those who may engage with governmental agencies under this chapter do not include artificial intelligence systems, autonomous agents, robots, or other nonhuman entities, whether physical or digital.
(2) For purposes of this subdivision, “artificial intelligence” means an engineered or machine-based system that varies in its level of autonomy and that can, for explicit or implicit objectives, infer from the input it receives how to generate outputs that can influence physical or virtual environments.
SEC. 7.
Section 11500 of the Government Code is amended to read:11500.
In this chapter unless the context or subject matter otherwise requires:(a) “Agency” includes the state boards, commissions, and officers to which this chapter is made applicable by law, except that wherever the word “agency” alone is used the power to act may be delegated by the agency, and wherever the words “agency itself” are used the power to act shall not be delegated unless the statutes relating to the particular agency authorize the delegation of the agency’s power to hear and decide.
(b) “Party” includes the agency, the respondent, and any person, other than an officer or an employee of the agency in his or her
their official capacity, who has been allowed to appear or participate in the proceeding.
(c) (1) “Person,” “participant,” and any other similar terms referring to those who may engage with governmental agencies under this chapter do not include artificial intelligence systems, autonomous agents, robots, or other nonhuman entities, whether physical or digital.
(2) For purposes of this subdivision, “artificial intelligence” means an engineered or machine-based system that varies in its level of autonomy and that can, for explicit or implicit objectives, infer from the input it receives how to generate outputs that can influence
physical or virtual environments.
(c)
(d) “Respondent” means any person against whom an accusation or District Statement of Reduction in Force is filed pursuant to Section 11503 or against whom a statement of issues is filed pursuant to Section 11504.
(d)
(e) “Administrative law judge” means an individual qualified
under Section 11502.
(e)
(f) “Agency member” means any person who is a member of any agency to which this chapter is applicable and includes any person who himself or herself constitutes themselves constitute an agency.
SEC. 8.
Section 54951.5 is added to the Government Code, to read:54951.5.
(a) As used in this chapter, “person,” “interested person,” “participant,” “member of the public,” and any other similar terms referring to those who may engage with governmental agencies under this chapter do not include artificial intelligence systems, autonomous agents, robots, or other nonhuman entities, whether physical or digital.(b) For purposes of this section, “artificial intelligence” means an engineered or machine-based system that varies in its level of autonomy and that can, for explicit or implicit objectives, infer from the input it receives how to generate outputs that can influence physical or virtual environments.
SEC. 9.
Section 82047 of the Government Code is amended to read:82047.
(a) “Person” means an individual, proprietorship, firm, partnership, joint venture, syndicate, business trust, company, corporation, limited liability company, association, committee, and any other organization or group of persons acting in concert.(b) (1) “Person,” “interested person,” “participant,” “member of the public,” and any similar terms referring to those who may engage with governmental agencies under this title do not include artificial intelligence systems, autonomous agents, robots, or other nonhuman entities, whether physical or
digital.
(2) For purposes of this subdivision, “artificial intelligence” means an engineered or machine-based system that varies in its level of autonomy and that can, for explicit or implicit objectives, infer from the input it receives how to generate outputs that can influence physical or virtual environments.
SEC. 10.
Section 21066 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read:21066.
(a) “Person” includes any person, firm, association, organization, partnership, business, trust, corporation, limited liability company, company, district, county, city and county, city, town, the state, and any of the agencies and political subdivisions of those entities, and, to the extent permitted by federal law, the United States, or any of its agencies or political subdivisions.(b) (1) “Person,” ”interested person,” ”member of the public,” and any other similar terms referring to those who may engage with governmental agencies under this division
do not include artificial intelligence systems, autonomous agents, robots, or other nonhuman entities, whether physical or digital.
(2) For purposes of this subdivision, “artificial intelligence” means an engineered or machine-based system that varies in its level of autonomy and that can, for explicit or implicit objectives, infer from the input it receives how to generate outputs that can influence physical or virtual environments.
SEC. 3.SEC. 11.
The Legislature finds and declares that Section 2 of this act, whichThe clarification made by this act serves the public interest by preserving the integrity and functionality of California’s democratic institutions, preventing automated systems from displacing genuine human participation, protecting public resources from being consumed by responding to machine-generated
requests, and ensuring that governmental decisions remain responsive to the people of California.