Bill > SB1159

This bill amends several key California transparency, governance, and environmental laws—such as the California Public Records Act and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)—to explicitly exclude artificial intelligence systems, autonomous agents, and digital or physical robots from definitions like "person," "interested person," or "member of the public." By updating these statutes, the legislation prevents automated programs from flooding government agencies with mass public records requests, automated petitions, or artificial comments that could otherwise overwhelm public resources and drown out genuine human participation in democracy. To ensure individuals are not unfairly blocked, the bill includes protections allowing real people to use AI and assistive technologies—equipment or product systems used to maintain or improve the functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities—to facilitate their own personal interactions with the government, provided the volume and frequency remain consistent with normal human engagement. Furthermore, the legislation authorizes public agencies to use specialized disclosure verification tools to detect the presence of AI, and it explicitly prohibits anyone from knowingly using artificial intelligence to falsely represent that a human being has appeared before, submitted information to, or otherwise engaged with a government agency.