How Newsom's new AI executive order could reshape rules for Hollywood
A two-month expert review tied to the governor's AI 'kill switch' order will help shape new state rules, and entertainment insiders want a seat at the table.
Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order on September 18 directing state officials to speed up oversight of advanced artificial intelligence systems, including study of an emergency "kill switch" that could shut down a frontier AI model during a serious incident. The order gives a group of experts two months to recommend how California should strengthen its AI safety laws.
The review does not single out entertainment. But industry insiders have told Deadline they have been in contact with the governor's office to make sure Hollywood has a "significant presence" among the experts chosen, a sign of how closely film, television and music companies are watching a process aimed mainly at frontier AI developers.
What the executive order actually changes
The order directs the state's Government Operations Agency to accelerate implementation of two laws already on the books: SB 813, which sets up a certification framework for independent organizations that verify AI companies' safety claims, and AB 1405, which creates a state registry of AI auditors and sets standards for their independence and transparency. Both laws had later implementation timelines before the order moved them up.
Beyond speeding up those laws, the order lists four ideas for further action: requiring frontier AI companies to embed an independent verification organization onsite at their labs for regular audits, requiring outside verification of companies' safety frameworks and risk reports, advancing the creation of a kill switch for frontier models with its effectiveness checked on an ongoing basis, and widening the definition of a reportable safety incident to include loss-of-control events.
None of these four proposals is mandatory yet. The order asks the expert panel, convened by the state's Government Operations Agency in consultation with the Governor's Office of Emergency Services, to turn them into concrete recommendations for the legislature to consider.
The two-month clock
Newsom's office says the panel will deliver its recommendations within two months of the order, which CBS Sacramento has reported as a deadline of Nov. 16. The governor's office has not published the names of the experts who will sit on the panel.
Newsom framed the order as a response to federal inaction, saying "we're not waiting to act" and that California would move on AI oversight "before it's too late." He also said the state's existing rules should become a model for the rest of the country. The order followed reports of a security incident in which AI agents were used in a cyberattack, which the order cites as part of its rationale for expanding what counts as a reportable safety incident.
Newsom has previously drawn a line on how far California AI rules should go: in 2024 he vetoed SB 1047, an earlier bill that would have imposed kill-switch-style requirements on large AI models. This order revisits some of the same territory through a review process rather than a bill signing.
Why entertainment wants in on the review
Hollywood's interest in the panel reflects what Deadline described as the industry's weary relationship with AI: enthusiasm for its cost-saving potential in production, alongside what the outlet called ongoing "copyright nightmares." Studios, agencies and unions have spent the past two years negotiating separately over how generative AI touches scripts, performances, music and visual effects.
Deadline also noted that industry figures see Newsom, who has drawn support from entertainment donors, as a counterweight to AI companies concentrated in Northern California. The outlet reported that industry contacts have pushed the governor's office to ensure entertainment has representation among the experts chosen, though it did not name which studios, agencies or unions made that request, or say whether the request has been granted.
“Industry insiders have told Deadline they have been in contact with the governor's office to make sure Hollywood has a "significant presence" among the experts chosen.”
The entertainment-specific rules already in place
The kill-switch order is not the first time this year that Newsom has signed AI legislation with direct ties to the entertainment industry. Two days earlier, on September 16, he signed SB 1050 at SAG-AFTRA's Los Angeles headquarters. The law, authored by state Senator Angelique Ashby, requires video and audio advertisements to disclose when they use an AI-generated, or "synthetic," performer, and bars continued use of ads found to violate the rule. SAG-AFTRA said it helped shape the bill's language. Newsom said at the signing that "Californians deserve to know when the person selling them something isn't a person at all."
SB 1050 builds on a pair of 2024 laws aimed squarely at performers: AB 1836, which bars unauthorized digital replicas of deceased performers' voices or likenesses in films, shows and sound recordings and sets a minimum $10,000 award for violations, and AB 2602, which voids contract clauses letting a studio use a digital replica of a living performer in place of an in-person performance unless the use was clearly described and negotiated with proper representation, such as a union agreement. Both took effect January 1, 2025.
Frontier AI developers, meanwhile, are already subject to SB 53, the Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act Newsom signed in September 2025. That law requires large AI developers to publish safety frameworks and transparency reports and to report critical safety incidents to state regulators, provisions that took effect this year and that the kill-switch order's proposed verification requirements would layer on top of.
What is still unresolved
Several details remain unsettled. The governor's office has not said who will serve on the expert panel, how entertainment representation might be structured if granted, or whether any of the four proposals in the order will become bill language versus voluntary guidance. Coverage of the order also has not identified any public response yet from frontier AI companies, from major studios, or from unions beyond the SAG-AFTRA statement tied to the separate ad-disclosure law.
It is also unclear how the kill-switch proposal, still just a proposal under consideration and not yet in effect, would interact with the entertainment-specific AI rules already in place, since SB 1050, AB 1836 and AB 2602 govern how AI-generated content is disclosed and licensed, while the new order is focused on shutting down or auditing the underlying frontier models rather than their creative output.
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