Law / United States / 
California
Independent Verification Organizations Act (SB 813)
Cal. Gov. Code Sections 8898 to 8898.4 (SB 813, Ch. 179, Stats. 2026)
An AI governance rule binding public and private bodies.
- Private right of action
- No
- Obligation class
- Governance, Reporting, Licensing, Disclosure
- Audit expectation
- none
- Who audits it
- Registered or designated auditor
What it requires
- This chapter does not require you to engage an independent verification organization (IVO) or undergo a covered AI audit as a condition of developing, deploying, or operating an AI system or model in California; doing so is voluntary.
- If you want to be designated as an IVO, apply once the Government Operations Agency publishes its application requirements and designation criteria, due by .
- If you are a designated IVO, submit an annual report on your standards, methodologies, governance changes, and conflicts of interest to the agency and the Legislature, starting no sooner than 12 months after your designation.
- If a court considers whether your AI system or model caused harm, an audit performed to a standard identified under this chapter is relevant to, but not conclusive of, that action; the chapter creates no safe harbor or affirmative defense.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
California Government Operations Agency, which designates independent verification organizations and may suspend or terminate that designation; the chapter states no penalty against a developer, deployer, or operator of an AI system or model.
What it makes you log
Who may demand the log
Regulator
Log retention
Section 8898.3(c)'s five-year floor applies to the unredacted version of information an IVO redacts from its annual report; it does not apply to a report the IVO never redacts. The annual report's own content (summaries of standards and methodologies, governance and funding changes, application-information changes) names no record contents.
- Unit
- Years
- As of
- Basis
- Fixed
- Minimum value
- 5
Logging duty
A designated IVO must submit an annual report on its standards, methodologies, governance, and conflicts of interest to the agency and the Legislature, and the chapter separately lists "failure to maintain adequate documentation" as a ground to suspend or terminate an IVO's designation (Section 8898.1(b)(4)). Neither provision uses the words log, record, event recording, or audit trail; both use maintain and report. This is a distinct question from whether a developer or deployer of an AI system is expected to have its own AI system audited; this duty is the designated IVO's own reporting and documentation obligation about itself.
- Kind
- Implicit
- As of
- Provision
- Section 8898.3
What this law does
SB 813 was chaptered on and carries no urgency clause, so it takes effect on under California's default operative date.
It directs the California Government Operations Agency to develop, by , application requirements, suspension and termination procedures, and designation criteria for independent verification organizations (IVOs), private AI auditors the agency designates as qualified to assess the risks posed by an AI system or model, but the chapter does not require any person, partnership, or corporation that develops, deploys, or operates an AI system or model to engage an IVO or undergo a covered AI audit.
A designated IVO must submit an annual report on its standards, methodology, governance, and conflicts of interest to the agency and the Legislature, starting no sooner than 12 months after its designation, and if an audit performed to the chapter's standards is later invoked in a civil action alleging that an AI system or model caused harm, the chapter makes it relevant to, but not conclusive of, that action.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app trains models or generates content with AI.
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