California Attorney General Rob Bonta joined a bipartisan coalition of 36 state attorneys general in sending a letter to Congress opposing a proposed provision in the National Defense Authorization Act that would preempt state laws addressing AI risks. The coalition argues that states must retain authority to mitigate AI harms, particularly to children, and that state-level enforcement is critical for protecting residents from emerging threats like deepfakes and harmful AI interactions.
In-house legal teams should review vendor, customer, and data processing agreements for clauses that address compliance with state-specific AI regulations, particularly those protecting children and mitigating AI harms like deepfakes. Focus on governing law and preemption provisions to ensure state authority is not waived; data processing and AI usage clauses to align with evolving state standards; and cooperation or enforcement clauses that obligate parties to support state-level regulatory actions. Updates may be needed to explicitly preserve applicability of state AI laws, require adherence to child safety measures in AI interactions, and mandate prompt responses to state inquiries regarding AI risks.
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California Attorney General Rob Bonta
Also known as: California Department of Justice
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OtherOfficial Press Release
https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-bipartisan-coalition-urge-congress-stand-states%E2%80%99
Letter to Congress AI Moratorium FINAL (corrected)
https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/attachments/press-docs/Letter%20to%20Congress%20AI%20Moratorium_FINAL%20%28corrected%29.pdf
California Attorney General Enforcement Page
https://oag.ca.gov/privacy/privacy-enforcement-actions
"California Attorney General Rob Bonta today joined a bipartisan coalition of 36 state attorneys general"
"opposing a proposed provision in the National Defense Authorization Act that would preempt state laws addressing the risks of artificial intelligence"
"states must be empowered to utilize existing laws and formulate new approaches to mitigate potential harms associated with artificial intelligence"
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, joined by attorneys general from seven other states, filed a lawsuit to block the $6.2 billion merger between Nexstar Media Group and Tegna Inc. The lawsuit alleges the merger violates Section 7 of the Clayton Act by reducing competition in local TV markets, leading to higher prices, less local news, and job losses.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education to block the expansion of IPEDS data collection requiring colleges to submit race-linked student data. The lawsuit argues the demand is arbitrary, capricious, and burdensome, and could enable costly partisan investigations. A multistate coalition co-led the challenge.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta and a coalition of state attorneys general announced they will continue their antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation/Ticketmaster after the U.S. Department of Justice settled the case. The states aim to hold Live Nation accountable for anticompetitive conduct that harms consumers, artists, and venues in the live music industry.
$376K
The California Privacy Protection Agency (CalPrivacy) settled with Ford Motor Company requiring the company to pay a $375,703 fine and change its practices. Ford violated the CCPA by requiring consumers to complete an email verification step before they could opt-out of the sale and sharing of their personal information collected through digital properties and connected vehicle services. In addition to the fine, Ford must provide easy methods to submit opt-out requests with minimal steps, audit its tracking technologies, and ensure compliance with opt-out preference signals including Global Privacy Control.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, co-leading a bipartisan coalition of 21 attorneys general and charitable regulators, sent a letter to GoFundMe demanding the platform remove all plagiarized donation web pages for over 1.4 million charities, disclose information about donations, and ensure pages do not outrank official charity sites in search results. The action follows reports that GoFundMe used charities' information without consent and engaged in deceptive solicitations, violating state charitable solicitation and consumer protection laws.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services opposing a proposed rule that would eliminate model card requirements for AI tools in healthcare, warning that such rollbacks could lead to biased and unsafe healthcare decisions by reducing transparency.