California Artificial Intelligence Auditors Registration Act (AB 1405)

Properties

jurisdiction: US, California
level: state
domain: general
status: enacted-pending
scope: Companion measure to SB 813: creates a state registry of auditors who conduct 'covered AI audits' (audits examining controls, processes, or systems relevant to compliance with California AI-related law) and sets independence, transparency, and recordkeeping standards for them.
obligations: The Government Operations Agency must establish a public online AI Auditor Registry, requiring registrants to provide business/contact information, the California laws or regulations they audit against, relevant certifications, service descriptions and standard operating procedures, and pay an annual fee. Registered auditors must use recognized industry audit standards and produce reports covering scope, objectives, results, supporting evidence, deficiencies, and corrective measures. Independence restrictions bar an auditor from evaluating work it designed or operated, from accepting engagements with impairing financial relationships, or from pursuing employment with the audited organization during an engagement. Beginning January 1, 2029, an unregistered person may not offer, sell, or conduct a covered AI audit.
effectiveDate: 2027-01-01
enactedDate: 2026-09-09
appliesTo: Persons and entities offering, selling, or conducting covered AI audits in California
officialUrl: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1405
notes: Authored by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan; signed by Governor Newsom on September 9, 2026 alongside the companion SB 813 (California Artificial Intelligence Standards and Safety Commission Act, already tracked). Confirmed directly against leginfo.legislature.ca.gov billStatusClient: '09/09/26 Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 178, Statutes of 2026.' and '09/09/26 Approved by the Governor.' Distinct from ca-sb813: SB 813 creates the Commission and the criteria for designating Independent Verification Organizations (IVOs); AB 1405 creates the actual state-run registry auditors must join and sets recordkeeping/independence rules for registrants, with its own later January 1, 2029 mandatory-registration deadline. No confirmed statutory penalty figure located in secondary sources reviewed; left null rather than guessed. VALIDATOR NOTE (2026-09-19): officialUrl corrected from billTextClient to billStatusClient because the billTextClient page returned a connection error on repeated independent fetch attempts, matching the originating discoverer's own report of a leginfo bill-text timeout; billStatusClient is confirmed live and was used to reproduce the chaptering quote above verbatim. effectiveDate is recorded as 2027-01-01 per this dataset's standard California operative-date convention for a chaptered statute without an independently confirmed operative-date clause of its own (matching ca-sb243 and ca-ab489), rather than the January 1, 2029 mandatory-registration deadline, which remains stated in the obligations field as the date beginning which an unregistered person may not offer, sell, or conduct a covered AI audit.

Properties

jurisdiction

US, California

level

state

domain

general

status

enacted-pending

scope

Companion measure to SB 813: creates a state registry of auditors who conduct 'covered AI audits' (audits examining controls, processes, or systems relevant to compliance with California AI-related law) and sets independence, transparency, and recordkeeping standards for them.

obligations

The Government Operations Agency must establish a public online AI Auditor Registry, requiring registrants to provide business/contact information, the California laws or regulations they audit against, relevant certifications, service descriptions and standard operating procedures, and pay an annual fee. Registered auditors must use recognized industry audit standards and produce reports covering scope, objectives, results, supporting evidence, deficiencies, and corrective measures. Independence restrictions bar an auditor from evaluating work it designed or operated, from accepting engagements with impairing financial relationships, or from pursuing employment with the audited organization during an engagement. Beginning January 1, 2029, an unregistered person may not offer, sell, or conduct a covered AI audit.

effectiveDate

2027-01-01

enactedDate

2026-09-09

appliesTo

Persons and entities offering, selling, or conducting covered AI audits in California

officialUrl

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1405

notes

Authored by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan; signed by Governor Newsom on September 9, 2026 alongside the companion SB 813 (California Artificial Intelligence Standards and Safety Commission Act, already tracked). Confirmed directly against leginfo.legislature.ca.gov billStatusClient: '09/09/26 Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 178, Statutes of 2026.' and '09/09/26 Approved by the Governor.' Distinct from ca-sb813: SB 813 creates the Commission and the criteria for designating Independent Verification Organizations (IVOs); AB 1405 creates the actual state-run registry auditors must join and sets recordkeeping/independence rules for registrants, with its own later January 1, 2029 mandatory-registration deadline. No confirmed statutory penalty figure located in secondary sources reviewed; left null rather than guessed. VALIDATOR NOTE (2026-09-19): officialUrl corrected from billTextClient to billStatusClient because the billTextClient page returned a connection error on repeated independent fetch attempts, matching the originating discoverer's own report of a leginfo bill-text timeout; billStatusClient is confirmed live and was used to reproduce the chaptering quote above verbatim. effectiveDate is recorded as 2027-01-01 per this dataset's standard California operative-date convention for a chaptered statute without an independently confirmed operative-date clause of its own (matching ca-sb243 and ca-ab489), rather than the January 1, 2029 mandatory-registration deadline, which remains stated in the obligations field as the date beginning which an unregistered person may not offer, sell, or conduct a covered AI audit.