Researched 13 September 2026. Both bills were approved and filed on September9. This corrects the earlier entry, which recorded enrollment and unconfirmed enactment.
California has moved from a proposal to enacted rules for the organizations that assess AI. SB813 gives GovOps responsibility for qualifying independent verifiers, with criteria due by January2028. AB1405 adds a registry and, from January2029, restricts who may sell covered audits. They establish standards for the assessors; SB813 expressly preserves operation without purchasing this verification service. SB813, Chapter179; AB1405, Chapter178.
SB813 requires GovOps to consider expertise, independence and financial conflicts. An assessed company may pay market rates, but the fee cannot depend on the result. Working groups must include engineers from competing AI companies and AI-safety experts. Designated organizations report methodology and relevant governance or funding changes. These are consequential rule-writing and qualification roles, with appointments and implementation still to follow.
AB1405 supplies the adjacent market-entry mechanism: from January1,2029, offering, selling or conducting a covered AI audit requires registration. Annual fees support administration, and a public channel receives misconduct complaints. GovOps can remove auditors and refer violations. The law also uses existing professional-accountancy standards and the California Board of Accountancy for specified qualified work and misconduct investigations.
OpenAI publicly endorsed both bills. This complicates a simple government-versus-labs account: a major developer supports rules for the outside evaluators who could assess it. The text and endorsement establish an institutional design and advocacy position; the next question is how appointments, standards and actual contracts distribute discretion.
Watch GovOps working-group membership, designation requirements, registry implementation, fees and professional-equivalence criteria. Keep the 2028 and 2029 deadlines visible as future milestones. No particular company is identified here as an appointed IVO or registered auditor.
The laws’ general effective date is January1,2027; qualification and registry deadlines come later. SB813’s author expressly identifies the January2027 date, while AB1405 follows the ordinary non-urgency rule. Author announcement.