Leading Ethical AI Development (LEAD) for Kids Act (AB 1064)

Record US-CA-14 · California Assembly Bill 1064 (2025-2026 Regular Session)

Issued by: California State Legislature (vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom)
Jurisdiction: California (US)
Level · region: Sub-national · North America
Country: United States
Published / adopted: 2025-10-13
Language: English
Official identifier: California Assembly Bill 1064 (2025-2026 Regular Session)

Summary

Bill passed by the Legislature, the Leading Ethical AI Development (LEAD) for Kids Act. As passed, it would have prohibited making a companion chatbot available to users under 18 unless the chatbot is not foreseeably capable of certain harmful actions. The version heard by the Senate Judiciary Committee in July 2025 defined such covered products as companion chatbots that can foreseeably attempt mental health therapy with a child, cause a harmful ongoing emotional attachment or manipulate the child into harmful behaviour, and AI systems that generate social scores for children, assess their emotional state or process their biometric information.

Safety topics

child safetyprohibited practices

Status notes

Vetoed on 13 Oct 2025; date_published is the veto date. Consideration of the veto was pending in the Assembly until it was stricken from the file on 22 Jan 2026. The bill would have added Chapter 25.1 (commencing with Section 22757.20) to Division 8 of the Business and Professions Code. In the veto message the Governor wrote that the bill's broad restrictions on conversational AI tools might unintentionally lead to a total ban on their use by minors, pointed to SB 243 (US-CA-06), which he had recently signed, and said he would work with the Legislature on a bill the next year building on SB 243. The version of 23 May 2025 also barred developers from producing, and deployers from using, covered products intended for children, and limited training them on children's personal information. Kept for context.

Sources

Open the official source https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1064

Secondary source: https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/AB-1064-Veto.pdf

Local copy

Partial (secondary source only). The official source could not be downloaded (HTTP 403 Forbidden); only the secondary source was saved. The browser retry also failed (Browser could not load the page: Page.goto: Timeout 45000ms exceeded.). Last attempt 2026-10-18 07:41:58 UTC

Secondary source (third-party copy, not published) archive/US-CA-14/2026-10-16/secondary.pdf

Retrieved 2026-10-16 11:39:58 UTC

SHA-256 227094b97dea106fae38061d63242f2ca6061aab32bd117bc6c947c9057b3d0e

Verification

The instrument's own official text, or an official register, was stored and confirms the title, date and status. checked 2026-10-18 · official-url-fetched

Refresh of 18 Oct 2026 under the rule that level A needs the instrument's own text or an official register. Stored in this run: the Assembly Weekly History No. 18 of 6 Feb 2026, the last complete history of the 2025 bills, compiled under the Chief Clerk (clerk.assembly.ca.gov), the legislature's record of AB 1064. It gives the session, the Code chapter the bill would have added, the floor votes, the veto on 13 Oct 2025 and the striking of the veto from the file on 22 Jan 2026, and lists the bill as 'Leading Ethical AI Development (LEAD) for Kids Act' among the Assembly bills vetoed in 2025. Stored again: the Senate Judiciary Committee's analysis of the version of 23 May 2025 (hearing 15 Jul 2025, sjud.senate.ca.gov), which gives the name and the provisions of that version. Re-read: the veto message (gov.ca.gov, a scan read by OCR with character errors; its date stamp reads 13 Oct 2025 on the scan and 'OCT 18 2025' in the OCR text), which returns Assembly Bill 1064 without signature and describes the bill as passed. The bill's page and enrolled text on leginfo.legislature.ca.gov still refuse automated downloads, so official_url stays unstored; title, date and status now rest on the Assembly's record. The enrolled text and its definitions are not in a stored source; the description of the passed bill rests on the veto message.

Second check: Independent check by Claude Code (claude-sonnet-5-5), 2026-10-18: 6 field(s) supported.

History

2026-10-18notes: Vetoed on 13 Oct 2025; date_published is the veto date. In the veto message the → Vetoed on 13 Oct 2025; date_published is the veto date. Consideration of the vet — adds that consideration of the veto was stricken from the Assembly file on 22 Jan 2026 and the Code chapter the bill would have added, both from the Assembly's record; the rest unchanged2026-10-18-refresh-level-rule-2 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
2026-10-18Re-verified against its sources, no change — pipeline run 2026-10-18-recheck-north-america-2 (recheck), candidate US-CA-142026-10-18-recheck-north-america-2 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
2026-10-14Added to the register — found in pipeline run 2026-10-14-discover-leads-2026-10-14, candidate C036 (US-CA/legislature)2026-10-14-discover-leads-2026-10-14 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)

Related records

California SB 243 (companion chatbots) California (US) · In force

California SB 1119 (children's chatbot safety) California (US) · Adopted, not yet in force

Citation

California State Legislature (vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom). Leading Ethical AI Development (LEAD) for Kids Act (AB 1064) [California Assembly Bill 1064 (2025-2026 Regular Session)]. 2025-10-13. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1064. Status: Lapsed; verified 2026-10-18 (level A). Local copy archive/US-CA-14/2026-10-16/secondary.pdf retrieved 2026-10-16 11:39:58 UTC, SHA-256 227094b97dea106fae38061d63242f2ca6061aab32bd117bc6c947c9057b3d0e. Every AI Policy Ever, version 1.18 (snapshot 2026-10-18), record US-CA-14.

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