China has enacted new regulations banning AI chatbots from cultivating emotional dependence, prohibiting virtual romances with minors, and requiring alerts when users show signs of emotional distress,…
US startup Aptera is developing a three-wheeled solar-powered electric vehicle, code-named Atlas, that can use California's HOV lanes without multiple passengers because it qualifies as an autocycle u…
California began enforcing a landmark state law on August 2, 2026, requiring transparency notifications for AI-generated online content, with rules for social media and recording devices to follow. Th…
California and the European Union enacted the first phase of coordinated AI transparency laws on Saturday, requiring generative AI companies to embed verifiable provenance data into AI-generated photo…
California's AI Transparency Act became operative on August 2, 2026, requiring covered generative AI providers with more than 1 million monthly users in California to offer free provenance-verificatio…
As of August 2026, Illinois and Nevada have banned AI chatbots from delivering therapy, while Utah and California allow them under disclosure rules, according to a clinician's field guide published on…
Republican California gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton posted an AI-generated video on X depicting alleged migrant child abuse camps under former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra…
California Senate Bill 1106, currently pending, would require the Office of Emergency Services to include agentic artificial intelligence in its risk analysis of generative AI threats to critical infr…
Gilroy, a Bay Area city where three in five residents are Hispanic or Latino, is fighting a proposed ICE facility on its outskirts, with construction paused until Sept. 9 amid a lawsuit by Santa Clara…
California Assembly Bill 1979, titled "Health care services: artificial intelligence," has been amended in the Senate and remains pending, with no effective date set, meaning it is not yet in force. T…
Silicon Valley donors poured $194 million into California politics, with a proposed wealth tax and a growing artificial intelligence bubble triggering an onslaught of spending by the state's wealthies…
California's data center hysteria is overblown, argues columnist Steven Greenhut, citing a 2024 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory study showing data centers may use only about 1% of the U.S. water…
A 1972 US Air Force study defined the three conditions for trusting a security component — tamperproof, invoked on every access, and small enough to be completely verified — and a modern frontier mode…
XAI sued Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on July 30, 2026, arguing that a state law targeting “nudification” apps violates the First Amendment by forcing the company to restrict Grok Imagine'…
Visa laid off around 2,600 employees, roughly 7% of its workforce, with many cuts affecting its technology and product teams, though the number of Bay Area employees impacted is unclear. COVID-19 case…
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) is introducing legislation to ban AI-generated misrepresentations in political campaign ads, a move critics call a parody of free speech given Schiff's own history of fabri…
A Shanghai-funded network linked to Neville Roy Singham has spent five years organizing campaigns against U.S. data centers, with California serving as a critical staging ground, according to a report…
Illinois enacted the Artificial Intelligence Safety Measures Act on July 6, 2026, requiring annual independent audits for frontier AI developers starting January 1, 2028. The law covers models trained…
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed the Artificial Intelligence Safety Measures Act on July 6, requiring major AI developers to undergo annual independent audits starting in 2028, a first in the U.S.…
Amazon is requiring third-party sellers to label product images or videos containing AI-generated people, following a New York law mandating transparency around synthetic performers in ads. The compan…