Law / United States / 
California
AI Agents and Public Participation Law (SB 1159)
Cal. Gov. Code Section 8319 (SB 1159, Ch. 863, Stats. 2026)
An AI prohibited practices rule binding private bodies.
- Obligation class
- Prohibition
As of .
What it requires
- Do not knowingly use artificial intelligence to falsely represent that a natural person appeared before, submitted information to, or otherwise engaged with a California governmental agency
- Make requests, comments, and other submissions to a California agency under the Public Records Act, the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act, the Ralph M. Brown Act, the Legislative Open Records Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, the California Coastal Act of 1976, or the California Environmental Quality Act as a natural person or a legally recognized entity, because an artificial intelligence system, autonomous agent, or robot is not a person, interested person, participant, or member of the public under those acts
- A natural person may use artificial intelligence, autonomous agents, or robots to facilitate their own engagement with a governmental agency, including through assistive technologies, provided the volume and frequency of the engagement are reasonably consistent with ordinary participation by a natural person
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text, as of .
In the frameworks
- NIST AI RMF
- MAP 3.3Targeted application scope is specified and documented based on the system’s capability, established context, and AI system categorization.
- NIST AI 600-1
- GAI-RISK-08Information Integrity
- GAI-RISK-11Obscene, Degrading, and/or Abusive Content
- MIT mitigations Draft
- FINOS AIGF
- AIR-PREV-005System Acceptance Testing
- ETSI EN 304 223
Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law
Identifiers refer to ETSI EN 304 223 V2.1.1 (2025-12), © ETSI 2025, all rights reserved. ETSI owns the standard; no ETSI text (titles or sentences) is reproduced here. The standard is free to download from ETSI.
What this law does
SB 1159 was chaptered on as Chapter 863 of the Statutes of 2026. A person shall not knowingly use artificial intelligence to falsely represent that a natural person appeared before, submitted information to, or otherwise engaged with a governmental agency.
For purposes of the California Public Records Act, the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act, the Brown Act, the Legislative Open Records Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, the California Coastal Act of 1976, and the California Environmental Quality Act, person, interested person, participant, member of the public, and similar terms do not include artificial intelligence systems, autonomous agents, or robots, whether physical or digital.
The Public Records Act provision does not prohibit a natural person from using artificial intelligence, autonomous agents, or robots to facilitate the person's own engagement with a governmental agency, including through the use of assistive technologies, provided the volume and frequency of the engagement are reasonably consistent with ordinary participation by a natural person.
A public agency may use a disclosure verification tool that meets the criteria of Business and Professions Code section 22757.2 to determine if artificial intelligence is present.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app files records requests or generates content with AI.