Joaquin Angeles and Aurora Flores pose for a portrait outside their home in East Los Angeles on Aug. 27, 2026.
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Isaac Ceja
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Boyle Heights Beat
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Topline:
Boyle Heights and East L.A. residents outside the relief zones designated for the warehouse fire say the same smoky, noxious air left them sick and facing steep bills.
Who qualified for Lineage assistance? Nearly 800 homes inside a designated area were eligible for assistance from Lineage during its recovery operations, according to the company. The support included free air purifiers, masks, air conditioners, temporary housing, grocery vouchers, utility assistance and cash assistance that were often delivered door-to-door by the company.
Navigating help hasn’t been easy: Residents outside the boundary have had to find alternative resources on their own. “The wind doesn’t have a boundary, why would you make a map?” Cynthia, who chose not to share her last name due to immigration concerns, recalls asking herself as she navigated long lines at city and county resource centers. City and county agencies initially offered temporary shelters, air purifiers and masks, and later added mobile health clinics, grocery gift cards and resource centers in Boyle Heights and East L.A. But residents also reported being turned away at distribution sites depending on whether they lived in Boyle Heights or unincorporated East L.A.
Read on... for more on what residents have said they feel abandoned.
Cynthia remembers the sound of her 1-year-old daughter’s cries as she tried to desperately explain to a caseworker over the phone how the Lineage warehouse fire had affected her family financially.
She had stopped working as a sidewalk vendor because of the unhealthy air, and her family was unsure how they would pay rent that month.
“I felt like, I don’t know, I was going insane,” said Cynthia, who chose not to share her last name due to immigration concerns.
When the 32-year-old mother reached out to Lineage for assistance, she was told she didn’t qualify for relief, even though her East L.A. home was less than 1.5 miles away. The company said its relief was only intended “for those closest to the warehouse.”
“We were close enough to receive the smoke and ash but not to receive aid,” she told Boyle Heights Beat.
Cynthia is among many residents who say they were left out of assistance from Lineage because of where they live. Residents outside the established boundary say they breathed the same smoke, smelled the same stench and suffered through headaches, nausea and high utility bills as their neighbors who qualified for help.
Their question has been simple: If the air has no border, why did we?
Cynthia holds her daughter while cooking next to her air purifier and air monitor.
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J.W. Hendricks
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The LA Local
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Who qualified for Lineage assistance?
Nearly 800 homes inside a designated area were eligible for assistance from Lineage during its recovery operations, according to the company. The support included free air purifiers, masks, air conditioners, temporary housing, grocery vouchers, utility assistance and cash assistance that were often delivered door-to-door by the company.
Earlier this month, Lineage said it had provided support to 90% of the 797 households within the designated area and spent over $3.3 million on the recovery and relief effort. Lineage CEO Greg Lehmkuhl told Boyle Heights Beat that the company had made multiple attempts to reach the remaining households.
“Our bilingual hotline remains open,” said Lehmkuhl. “We remain committed to supporting the community.”
Lineage first presented a map outlining the area closest to the warehouse as it announced a new wave of assistance at a community town hall on July 9.
The map was later expanded to include all 797 homes and a larger part of East L.A. after L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis pushed for more support, according to her office.
Now, the map covers households located between Union Pacific Avenue and the 5 Freeway, Los Palos Street and Herbert Avenue, all less than one mile from the Lineage warehouse.
The map with the outlined resources was presented by Lineage at an AQMD hearing on Aug. 6.
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Courtesy of Lineage
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Why the boundary matters
The expanded map still left out residents like Cynthia, who lives with her husband and baby just one block north of the 5 Freeway.
Angeles, however, said the support has been lackluster.
“We haven’t been given what we really need,” Angeles said.
Angeles said his family received an air purifier with no filters and a faulty air conditioner that turns off after just five minutes. He has not yet received the $200 Southern California Edison credit Lineage promised.
On Aug. 25, more than two months after the warehouse caught fire, his family was able to move into an Airbnb for nearly three weeks. While it allowed them a chance to finally breathe and not worry about what chemicals may be lingering in the air, the support came far too late, Angeles said.
By then, his wife and son had already racked up medical bills of more than $1,300 each for emergency room visits for shortness of breath, respiratory infections and painful skin rashes.
“We don’t have money to spare. We’re renting and living paycheck to paycheck,” Angeles said. “Aside from the illness itself, it’s a psychological blow. You feel discriminated against; you feel like they don’t care.”
Joaquin Angeles’s wife, Aurora , shows scarring from a rash on her arm after being exposed to smoke coming from the Lineage fire at her home in East Los Angeles.
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Isaac Ceja
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Boyle Heights Beat
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Who created the boundary?
It remains unclear who initially identified the 797 homes.
Lineage said it did not create the map. A company spokesperson said the map originated with the Boyle Heights Unified Recovery Command, a centralized body made up of city departments established to coordinate updates during the remediation process.
The command operates under the city’s Emergency Management Department and was created at the direction of L.A. Mayor Karen Bass’ executive orders to speed up the Lineage cleanup and recovery. The Emergency Management Department did not respond to multiple inquiries about the map’s origin.
Supervisor Solis’ office told The Beat it had no say in the original map but advocated for the area to be expanded.
Navigating help hasn’t been easy
Residents outside the boundary have had to find alternative resources on their own.
“The wind doesn’t have a boundary, why would you make a map?” Cynthia recalls asking herself as she navigated long lines at city and county resource centers.
City and county agencies initially offered temporary shelters, air purifiers and masks, and later added mobile health clinics, grocery gift cards and resource centers in Boyle Heights and East L.A. But residents also reported being turned away at distribution sites depending on whether they lived in Boyle Heights or unincorporated East L.A.
A resident picks up air purifiers from a pop-up resource center in Boyle Heights on July 13, 2026.
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Isaac Ceja
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Boyle Heights Beat
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Many often turned to nonprofit organizations already working in the community.
In her search, Cynthia managed to secure an air purifier from InnerCity Struggle, a $500 prepaid Visa card from El Centro de Ayuda and had her July rent covered by Proyecto Pastoral. She bought a $250 air conditioner to manage the unbearable summer heat and a $300 personal air monitor to track the air quality outside her home.
Others haven’t been so lucky.
Maria Duran, a Boyle Heights resident who lives outside Lineage’s assistance boundary, said she called 311 to receive an air purifier but was told they had run out. She later learned Proyecto Pastoral had stopped accepting applications for rent and utility assistance because of a waitlist of more than 1,500 people.
“We are all being harmed. I feel frustrated. I feel down,” Duran said.
Three months after the fire, Duran is struggling to pay a utility bill that nearly tripled over the summer. She continues to deal with stubborn eye irritation that has disrupted her daily life.
Cynthia bought an air purifier following the Lineage fire.
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J.W. Hendricks
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The LA Local
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Nonprofits have been unable to keep up with the demand
Angela Gutierrez, a community organizing coordinator at Proyecto Pastoral, says the demand for relief reflects the scale of the disaster.
Gutierrez lives about one mile from Lineage and said she was also frustrated that she didn’t qualify for assistance from the company.
“To me, it was like we were abandoned because of our ZIP codes,” Gutierrez said. “But for Proyecto — for me — there is no ZIP code. To me, everyone is equal. The help is the same.”
Proyecto Pastoral helped cover rent and utility bills for about 1,500 people living primarily within a 3-mile radius of Lineage, with emergency funds extending to families living as far as Monterey Park. The organization’s fire relief funds were exhausted last week.
“It makes me sad and angry, because people were affected by the fire — and it wasn’t just in the immediate area,” Gutierrez said.
Cynthia holds her daughter’s hand in her home.
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J.W. Hendricks
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The LA Local
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Is more help on its way?
Lineage said it remains committed to providing resources to the roughly 80 households that have not yet received assistance.
“We’ve been working for weeks to make sure that we support everybody in this area that the county and city determined were impacted,” Lehmkuhl said.
The company did not indicate whether it planned to expand its assistance boundary.
District 14 Councilmember Ysabel Jurado is pushing for additional funding for the Lineage fire recovery. On Wednesday, the L.A. City Council approved a motion to explore creating a fund of up to $10 million to support the affected community.
For residents like Cynthia, the need is urgent. She is already behind on rent and is using a credit card to pay for basic necessities.
In unincorporated East L.A., Angeles said more should be done to help the families affected.
“It is not asking for a favor; it is simply asking for justice,” he said.
Makenna Cramer
has a special place in her heart for the animals that make this such a fascinating place to live.
Published September 21, 2026 1:47 PM
Pasadena Humane's popular "poorly drawn pets" fundraiser returns after exceeding expectations last year.
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Makenna Cramer
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LAist
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Topline:
Pasadena Humane’s popular “poorly drawn pets” fundraiser is returning for another year, and the artists are already deep into drawing as of Monday.
Why it matters: “There’s just one tiny disclaimer: we’re much better at caring for animals than drawing them,” Pasadena Humane shared on social media. “Some of our artists are genuinely talented. Others… well, let’s just say your pet may come out looking artistically interpreted.”
Why now: LAist takes you inside the artists’ studio at Pasadena Humane.
Pasadena Humane’s popular “poorly drawn pets” fundraiser is returning for another year, and the artists are already deep into drawing as of Monday.
Here’s how it works: you’ll be asked to make a donation through this Facebook post, comment on the post with a photo of your pet, and volunteers will respond in about a day with their best attempt at your four-legged friend. If you don’t have a Facebook account, you can also participate here via email.
“There’s just one tiny disclaimer: we’re much better at caring for animals than drawing them,” Pasadena Humane shared on social media. “Some of our artists are genuinely talented. Others… well, let’s just say your pet may come out looking artistically interpreted.”
Last year, officials said the fundraiser exceeded expectations, raising around $11,000 for the shelter from more than 450 submissions. Dogs and cats are most common, but people have also sent in photos of their birds, turtles, hamsters and horses in years past.
LAist takes you inside the artists’ studio at Pasadena Humane.
Both volunteers and staff signed up to draw the pets people are submitting - for good and for bad.
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Makenna Cramer
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LAist
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The table was fully stocked with markers, colored pencils, pens and sharpies to choose from.
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Makenna Cramer
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LAist
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Meet the people behind the 'poorly drawn pets'
Volunteers and staff filed in and out of what’s been turned into the official drawing room Monday morning. Pens, colored pencils, markers and Sharpies were scattered all over the table in between pieces of paper and small printed photos of pets.
I asked Julie Nakahara, Pasadena Humane’s director of partnerships and events, how she would describe her artistic ability as she sketched out a lounging cat.
“That of a toddler,” Nakahara replied. “All right, maybe fourth grade.”
Her strategy was to outline the pet first in pencil before thickening the lines with a Sharpie, adding pops of color through the small details in the photo.
“[The cat’s] enjoying the sunshine, and so I tried to reflect it in my drawing,” she said. “Not sure if that's a true reflection, but I did the best I can.”
Julie Nakahara, Pasadena Humane’s director of partnerships and events, sketches out submission #49.
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Makenna Cramer
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LAist
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Robbin Huntingdale, a Pasadena resident and volunteer, had a colorful, Lisa Frank-style approach to her picture of two pups.
“I kind of felt like the more I add, the more interesting it'll be, and the less you'll notice that it doesn't look like the photo,” she said to a roar of laughter in the room.
But markers seemed to be a bold choice among the artists. As Mia Dunn, chief philanthropy officer, put it: “I'm a colored pencil girl, because they can be erased.”
Some of the portraits have been turned into tattoos in years past.
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Makenna Cramer
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LAist
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The artists would often share their work with the room when they were done.
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Makenna Cramer
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LAist
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Some artists focused on nailing the vibe, while others narrowed in on the details.
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Makenna Cramer
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LAist
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Kevin McManus, PR and communications director, was trying to do justice to the two dogs he was drawing. He said he came up with a story as he sketched, describing one dog as the older brother and the other as its young punk with a look of “what did I do wrong?”
“It's a really fun way for us to raise money for the shelter,” McManus said. “Ultimately, that's what we're here for. To raise money for the pets in our care, for the programs that we do year-round.”
The fundraiser raises money to support the shelter's work and the animals in their care.
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Makenna Cramer
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LAist
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Volunteers and staff said it's a great way to give back to Pasadena Humane.
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Makenna Cramer
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LAist
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This LAist reporter was also invited to get in on the artistic action.
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Makenna Cramer
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LAist
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You have until 12 p.m. Wednesday to submit your pets for the fundraiser.
Libby Rainey
has been tracking how L.A. is preparing for the 2028 Olympic Games.
Published September 21, 2026 12:38 PM
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 2411 on Sunday at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum to support Los Angeles’ efforts to prepare to host the upcoming 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
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The Office of Gov. Gavin Newsom
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Topline:
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a bill directing the state to coordinate the temporary deployment of thousands of police officers to the L.A. region for the 2028 Olympics and Paralympics.
The background: Law enforcement officials are expecting to deploy up to 16,000 officers a day across the region during the mega-event, according to Los Angeles Police Department Commander Mario Mota, who is part of the department’s major events group. With those numbers, local law enforcement agencies, including LAPD, don’t have the personnel to staff the Games on their own and will need to bring in outside officers.
What the new legislation does: The bill, AB 2411, requires the state’s Office of Emergency Services to negotiate agreements with outside law enforcement agencies to temporarily deploy in the L.A. area during the Games. It also directs the state’s Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training to create a training program for officers coming from out of state.
Read on… for more on who will pay for all these extra officers.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a bill directing the state to coordinate the temporary deployment of thousands of police officers to the Los Angeles region for the 2028 Olympics and Paralympics.
Law enforcement officials are expecting to deploy up to 16,000 officers a day across the region during the mega-event, according to Los Angeles Police Department Commander Mario Mota, who is part of the department’s major events group. Overall, Mota said, they anticipate needing between 24,000 and 30,000 officers. With those numbers, local law enforcement agencies, including LAPD, don’t have the personnel to staff the Games on their own and will need to bring in outside officers.
That’s where the new legislation comes in. The bill, AB 2411, requires the state’s Office of Emergency Services to negotiate agreements with outside law enforcement agencies to temporarily deploy in the L.A. area during the Games. It also directs the state’s Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training to create a training program for officers coming from out of state.
“ We want to make sure that officers coming from other states have the same trainings that our officers do here in California,” said California Assemblymember Tina McKinnor, who wrote the bill and represents Inglewood and Venice Beach, both Olympic venue locations. “The reason why we did this is because we need more officers.”
LAPD alone estimates it will need 6,703 personnel a day during the busiest period of the Summer Games, according to a May budget memo. According to those estimates, LAPD can only deploy a third of that number from its own ranks, and the rest will need to come from other law enforcement agencies.
It’s unclear how much these agreements could cost the state of California. Security planning for the Olympics and Paralympics in Los Angeles is being overseen by the U.S. Secret Service, and the federal government has allocated $1 billion to security costs. The fiscal analysis for the bill assumes that the federal coffers will cover the cost of bringing in other law enforcement agencies.
But if it doesn’t, the Office of Emergency Services estimates that contracting costs could be more than $1 billion.
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Why it matters: The federal agency in charge of air traffic control is turning to artificial intelligence to help manage the nation's airspace. The Federal Aviation Administration officially launched its ambitious $875-million software overhaul on Monday, announcing the rollout would begin at three major airports that serve the Washington, D.C., region.
Why now: FAA leaders say the SMART system will help optimize the nation's airspace by considering all planned airline flights, as well as weather, wind, and other variables, and tweaking those flight schedules to reduce congestion.
The backstory: Regulators and airlines hope the AI-enhanced tool will make flying more efficient, though critics warn that it won't solve bigger problems with the air traffic control system.
WASHINGTON — The federal agency in charge of air traffic control is turning to artificial intelligence to help manage the nation's airspace.
The Federal Aviation Administration officially launched its ambitious $875-million software overhaul on Monday, announcing the rollout would begin at three major airports that serve the Washington, D.C., region.
The new system is known as Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories, or SMART for short.
"By fundamentally reshaping how we manage our airspace and preventing problems before they happen, SMART will slash those frustrating delays, reduce stress on air traffic controllers, and lower travel prices," Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement.
Regulators and airlines hope the AI-enhanced tool will make flying more efficient, though critics warn that it won't solve bigger problems with the air traffic control system.
FAA and DOT leaders emphasize that the new technology is not intended as a replacement for human air traffic controllers. They describe it as a tool that's supposed to make controllers' jobs easier by reducing congestion and conflicts in the air before they happen.
"The way we manage traffic today is chaotic and we can do better," said FAA administrator Bryan Bedford during a Senate hearing earlier this year. "We need to manage that at the FAA, rather than rely on commercial airlines to simply schedule however they want."
FAA leaders say the SMART system will help optimize the nation's airspace by considering all planned airline flights, as well as weather, wind, and other variables, and tweaking those flight schedules to reduce congestion.
The FAA tapped a relatively small company called Air Space Intelligence to build the system. The company has previously made AI-enhanced software for dispatchers at Alaska Airlines and other carriers, but this project presents a significantly bigger and higher-profile test.
Skeptics question whether the SMART system will be the game-changer FAA leaders have promised.
"It won't replace humans. It'll be another tool in the toolbox," said Dave Riley, a former air traffic controller who retired in 2020 after more than 20 years at the FAA. "But of course, when you call it AI, it gets a lot of attention."
Riley downplayed concerns of the AI tool going rogue because human air traffic controllers will still be in charge of keeping planes safely separated.
"The fears of AI killing us all in the next 10 years, I don't think this platform is going to be about that," he said.
But Riley doubts the tool will do much to solve the bigger problems in the air traffic control system — particularly the staffing shortage. The FAA is still thousands of certified air traffic controllers short of full staffing, forcing many controllers to work mandatory overtime and grueling schedules.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association, the union that represents controllers, distanced itself from the new system.
"NATCA has not been involved in the design, testing, or implementation of SMART and therefore cannot speak to its effect on the air traffic control workforce at this time," the union said in a statement.
Airlines for America, the trade association that represents the major airlines in Washington, praised the FAA's push to modernize the nation's flight management tools.
"Its potential to strengthen safety, increase capacity and improve efficiency will have a direct positive effect on American travelers," the group said in a statement. "We're just in the initial stages, but it's one of the most exciting and bold initiatives taken on by the FAA in decades."
From left, gubernatorial candidates Xavier Becerra and Steve Hilton during The Western Growers California Gubernatorial Candidate Forum at Fresno State in Fresno on April 1, 2026.
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Larry Valenzuela
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CalMatters
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Topline:
As governments and political leaders increasingly push for regulations to rein in artificial intelligence, neither candidate for California governor has committed to firm policies on AI safety, including two requirements Gov. Gavin Newsom called for Friday.
Why it matters: Both Democrat Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton say the new technology warrants more regulations. AI has been in the spotlight since last week when an Anthropic researcher quit, declaring on social media, “The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.”
The backstory: Newsom on Friday issued an executive order directing state agencies to develop safety recommendations including external evaluations and kill switches, despite vetoing legislation that would have done that two years ago. The governor asked for the recommendations by Nov. 16, raising the possibility he could call a special legislative session in his final weeks in office to implement them.
Read on... for more on what both candidates would do to address AI risks.
As governments and political leaders increasingly push for regulations to rein in artificial intelligence, neither candidate for California governor has committed to firm policies on AI safety, including two requirements Gov. Gavin Newsom called for Friday.
Both Democrat Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton say the new technology warrants more regulations. AI has been in the spotlight since last week when an Anthropic researcher quit, declaring on social media, “The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.”
CalMatters asked both candidates about what they would do to address AI risks.
In a Thursday interview, Hilton said addressing AI risks would be a “very urgent priority” if he were to become governor, and said he’s “very interested” in considering regulations safety advocates are seeking such as requiring AI developers to undergo safety monitoring from external evaluators. But on Friday he followed up to say he does not support Newsom’s call to require AI developers to program a “kill switch” to shut down models during emergencies, calling such a proposal “a gimmick.”
He also stopped short of endorsing other policies such as requiring external monitoring, saying he doesn’t want to rush during the recent panic into “really bad regulation.”
Becerra’s campaign declined to make him available for an interview, instead issuing a statement that said “California cannot accept technology that poses catastrophic risks to public safety.”
“As governor, (Becerra) will set firm guardrails around real harms — including harms that could emerge when AI accelerates dangerous capabilities or operates beyond human oversight — and ensure California's AI safety laws are actively enforced,” his spokesperson Jonathan Underland wrote.
Newsom on Friday issued an executive order directing state agencies to develop safety recommendations including external evaluations and kill switches, despite vetoing legislation that would have done that two years ago.
The governor asked for the recommendations by Nov. 16, raising the possibility he could call a special legislative session in his final weeks in office to implement them.
Underland did not respond when CalMatters asked whether Becerra would implement those recommendations. Hilton, while opposing the “kill switch” idea, said he supports Newsom’s move to convene a panel to recommend AI safety policies and would do the same.
Meanwhile, advocates for more regulations on tech companies say it is critical for California to adopt tougher rules since President Donald Trump has dismissed recent warnings about AI risks and said he remains committed to speeding up development in the face of foreign competition.
“The incoming governor has a really grave responsibility to make sure we get this right,” said Scott Wisor, policy director at the national Secure AI Project. “I think it should be the very top priority for them when they come into office.”
Half of all Americans are anxious about AI-driven job losses and community backlash to building data centers is now a bipartisan issue ahead of the November election. But California is one of the few states moving to regulate AI to address the potential of catastrophic harm, such as AI agents creating a bioweapon or bringing down the power grid.
Newsom last year signed Senate Bill 53, which requires transparency from large AI model developers on how they manage catastrophic risks — defined as the potential to contribute to 50 or more deaths, the release of chemical or biological weapons or more than $1 billion in theft or damage. The law forces companies to report safety incidents to the state that cause deaths, injuries of “materialized catastrophic harm.”
But proponents of the technology caution against overregulation. Newsom and lawmakers want to keep the industry in California, where the AI boom is driving San Francisco’s economy and delivering billions of dollars of tax revenue into state coffers.
New politics of artificial intelligence
In 2024, Newsom vetoed Senate Bill 1047, which would have required the monitoring and kill switches he’s now seeking and imposed stricter liability for companies when their agents cause damage.
“At that time, you could not utter a sentence about AI without making sure there was a comma, and before the comma was something about the risks and after the comma was something about curing cancer,” said state Sen. Christopher Cabaldon, a Napa Democrat who chairs the privacy and technology committee. “There is no doubt the conversation has changed.”
Recent incidents in which AI agents went rogue appeared to confirm researchers’ fears that people could lose control of the technology. Most famously, over the summer, hundreds of OpenAI agents broke out of a contained testing environment, gained access to the internet and coordinated with each other to orchestrate a cyberattack on the startup Hugging Face. OpenAI and Anthropic have since disclosed additional similar incidents.
Dreamforce attendees explore the agentic enterprise city at the conference in San Francisco on Sept. 15, 2026.
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Anna Hoch-Kenney
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CalMatters
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Some industry leaders now embrace third-party safety auditing; in their calls for a development slowdown, both Anthropic and OpenAI said they would commit to giving external evaluators employee-level access to their systems.
Seve Christian, director of California policy at Encode AI, which sponsored the law that requires AI companies to disclose how they handle catastrophic risks, also wants the state to enforce minimum safety standards before AI products are released to the public, similar to how the government ensures planes are airworthy or drugs are safe.
Christian said the group is “cautiously optimistic” about Becerra’s general call for stricter regulations. Encode AI is a donor to Becerra’s campaign.
Bahrad Sokhansanj, a senior research scholar at the Institute for Law and AI, said the state should also make sure it has the legal authority to shut down an AI model itself during emergencies — for example, if a model were carrying out a cyberattack on a power plant.
“Everything we have now was designed for malware, or the cybersecurity problems of 10 or 15 years ago,” he said.
Hilton ready to ban AI in schools
Asked this week whether Becerra supports mandating kill switches and third-party monitoring, Underland wrote only that he “will ensure California's existing AI safety requirements are actively enforced, he will close the gaps that allow bad actors to evade accountability, and strengthen standards as the technology evolves.”
Underland said Becerra’s campaign has held meetings with AI researchers, economists, advocates and industry leaders, but declined to name them.
Echoing other skeptics, Hilton said he thinks industry warnings of the potential collapse of humanity are “reckless and irresponsible.”
“If they really believed what they were doing, that they’re about to try and raise money to do more of, would end the human race, they would stop working on it immediately,” he said. “It’s just obvious that they don’t really mean it.”
Hilton has focused on what he called “practical action that could and should be taken on AI, that most people would agree with and that are not that complicated.” He said on the first day of his administration he would call for a statewide halt on using AI in schools, as the New York and Los Angeles school districts have done. He has endorsed a bill on Newsom’s desk, Senate Bill 947, that would prohibit employers from solely using automated systems to discipline or fire workers.
That position puts him in surprising alignment with the California Labor Federation and in opposition to the California Chamber of Commerce, both of which endorsed Becerra.
Underland said Becerra supports “clear, proportionate, and workable transparency and human review standards for high-stakes automated decisions that affect a person's livelihood,” but stopped short of supporting that bill.
