Below I have provided the text of AB 316 from the California Legislature and which Governor Newsom signed into law on October 13, 2025 – AB 316 is another new California law in an ever expanding list of California laws regulating AI and computer or software automation. In my view, this is a legal area that should be and might already be preempted by national commerce and the commerce clause. And it really is not workable to have legislation and conflicting legislation coming from all States, in addition to international regulation. Surprisingly for legislation, AB 316 is very brief – you can read it quickly (see below) – but I would challenge a jury to interpret and understand what AB 316 says and I look forward to seeing AB 316-related jury instructions.
As enacted and worded AB 316 applies to every “defendant who developed, modified, or used artificial intelligence that is alleged to have caused a harm to the plaintiff” and prohibits that defendant from asserting a defense “that the artificial intelligence autonomously caused the harm to the plaintiff.” Arguably AB 316 almost turns simply the use of AI into product or into a form of perhaps quasi-product strict liability against the defendant. It is important to note that AB 316 is not limited to businesses but applies to all defendants including individuals and people are not in the act of business, and also is not limited to the manner in which the AI was used which often and probably most often has nothing to do with the design, manufacture, or sale of a product – instead it is simply the use of AI by anyone in some manner which then is alleged by the plaintiff to have been a cause or a partial cause of injury to the plaintiff.
The following is the wording of AB 316 including the Legislative Counsel’s Digest.
Assembly Bill No. 316
CHAPTER 672
An act to add Section 1714.46 to the Civil Code, relating to civil actions.
[ Approved by Governor October 13, 2025. Filed with Secretary of State October 13, 2025. ]
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST
AB 316, Krell. Artificial intelligence: defenses.
Existing law provides that everyone is responsible not only for the result of their willful acts, but also for an injury occasioned to another by their want of ordinary care or skill in the management of their property or person.
Existing law requires the developer of a generative artificial intelligence system or service that is released on or after January 1, 2022, and made publicly available to Californians for use, to post on the developer’s internet website documentation regarding the data used by the developer to train the generative artificial intelligence system or service. Existing law defines “artificial intelligence” for these purposes.
This bill would prohibit a defendant who developed, modified, or used artificial intelligence, as defined, from asserting a defense that the artificial intelligence autonomously caused the harm to the plaintiff.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: NO Local Program: NO
Bill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
Section 1714.46 is added to the Civil Code, to read:
(a) “Artificial intelligence” means an engineered or machine-based system that varies in its level of autonomy and that can, for explicit or implicit objectives, infer from the input it receives how to generate outputs that can influence physical or virtual environments.
(b) In an action against a defendant who developed, modified, or used artificial intelligence that is alleged to have caused a harm to the plaintiff, it shall not be a defense, and the defendant may not assert, that the artificial intelligence autonomously caused the harm to the plaintiff.
(c) This section does not limit or preclude a defendant from presenting either of the following:
(1) Any other affirmative defense, including evidence relevant to causation or foreseeability.
(2) Other evidence relevant to the comparative fault of any other person or entity.
Best to you, David Tate, Esq.
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David Tate, Esq. (and inactive CPA)
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David Tate, Esq. (and inactive California CPA) – practicing only as an attorney in California.
David Tate, Esq. Headlines (and inactive CPA) – Trust, estate, probate and elder abuse disputes, litigation and contentious administrations; business litigation and internal and co-owner business disputes, litigation, and governance; real property and co-owner disputes and litigation; mediator and dispute resolution services; and social and digital media for law, people, businesses and legal risk management. 