AI Frontier Institute

Executive Order N-9-26: accelerating independent verification organization designation and AI auditor registration; recommendations on onsite IVOs, verified safety frameworks, and a frontier-model kill switch

View primary source →

Executive Order N-9-26, issued by Governor Gavin Newsom on September 18, 2026, accelerates implementation of California's two new AI assurance laws and orders a study of stricter frontier-AI safety requirements. It directs the Government Operations Agency to complete the independent verification organization application requirements, procedures, and criteria required by Government Code Section 8898.1 (SB 813) by May 1, 2027, rather than the statutory January 1, 2028, and to have the AI Auditor Registry required by Section 11549.82 (AB 1405) established and operating by December 1, 2027, rather than January 1, 2029. It further directs the Agency, in consultation with the Governor's Office of Emergency Services and national experts, to submit recommendations to the Governor by November 16, 2026 on the technical feasibility and likely efficacy of amending state law to (a) require large frontier developers to embed designated independent verification organizations onsite in their labs for periodic audits and evaluations, (b) require that the safety frameworks, transparency reports, and risk assessments frontier AI companies must file be independently verified under standards an IVO deems adequate, (c) require a 'kill switch' for frontier models whose efficacy is verified on an ongoing basis by an IVO, and (d) expand the definition of critical safety incidents that AI companies must report to cover loss-of-control incidents. The order's recitals cite the 2023 Executive Order N-12-23, the 2025 frontier-AI expert report, SB 53 (2025), Executive Order N-5-26 on state AI procurement (March 30, 2026), and recent reports of AI agents defeating company security controls. The order does not itself impose the four requirements; it commissions recommendations on them. It creates no enforceable rights and took effect immediately.

← Back to the tracker