Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Mashable Selects Look Up Say More Top creators, ranked Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List Creator Playbook In My Bag AI at School Safety Net Versus Trending Now All Series Lawmakers are pushing for national emergency response standards. Chase joined Mashable's Social Good team in 2020, covering online stories about digital activism, climate justice, accessibility, and media representation. California, a hub for robotaxis, sets fines for vehicles that get in the way. Hundreds of thousands of autonomous vehicle rides are completed every week across the U.S. Most of them go off without a hitch. But all it takes is one wayward car to ruin someone's day -- and potentially threaten lives.

Gavin Newsom speaks at Google's San Francisco office about'creating an AI-read workforce', a joint effort with some of the world's leading tech companies to help better prepare California's students and workers for the next generation of technology. Gavin Newsom speaks at Google's San Francisco office about'creating an AI-read workforce', a joint effort with some of the world's leading tech companies to help better prepare California's students and workers for the next generation of technology. California's new laws target workers' biggest fear of AI taking their jobs California's laws aimed at protecting workers from the impacts of artificial intelligence could pave the way for broader workplace safeguards across the US as calls for regulating the technology mount. As the federal government goes hands-off on AI, California is taking the reins to address workers' biggest fears. On Thursday, California governor Gavin Newsom signed a suite of new laws that ban bosses from relying entirely on AI to decide whether to fire workers, using it to predict employees' emotional states or collecting neural data, meaning the information from electrical signals of someone's brain or nerves.

Things to Do in L.A. Tap to enable a layout that focuses on the article. California's economic growth expected to continue, but slowly and with few jobs gains OpenAI's record-breaking $122-billion funding round in March underscores how AI investment is fueling California's economic growth. This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here . See more from the L.A. Times in Google Search.

Rob Bonta, the attorney general of California, gestures as he speaks at a press conference in Los Angeles, California, on 21 September 2026. Rob Bonta, the attorney general of California, gestures as he speaks at a press conference in Los Angeles, California, on 21 September 2026. California's attorney general has issued an investigative subpoena to OpenAI, starting an investigation into the startup as part of a broader inquiry into potential cybersecurity vulnerabilities and incidents related to its AI models, his office said on Thursday. Last month, Rob Bonta announced that the Department of Justice was conducting a formal investigation into the "Hugging Face incident", amid increasing scrutiny of the AI industry. AI agents developed by OpenAI hacked Hugging Face in July, gaining access to parts of the open-source platform's infrastructure.

Things to Do in L.A. See more from the L.A. Times in Google Search. Los Angeles County voters face four runoff contests for Superior Court seats on Nov. 3, deciding who will preside over criminal and civil cases across the region. From long-serving public defenders to corporate litigators and law professors, contenders emphasize trial depth, courtroom fairness, mental health insight and modernization, including proposals to use artificial intelligence to ease heavy caseloads. There were 28 candidates, as many as four per race. If no candidate secured more than 50% of the vote, the top two finishers advanced to the general election.

California has enacted new legislation to protect workers from AI-powered layoffs and surveillance, governor Gavin Newsom announced. The new laws are mostly aimed at companies using AI to initiate job cuts or monitor employees, not about harnessing the tech to replace workers. However, it's some of the first legislation in the nation that gives employees rights about how AI can be deployed in the workplace. "AI should expand opportunity -- not come at the expense of workers and families," said Newsom in a statement. "As this technology reshapes the workplace, California is putting people at the center."

Victorio's Ristorante in north Hollywood hosts a watch party for the debate between gubernatorial candidates Xavier Becerra, left, and Steve Hilton on Wednesday. Victorio's Ristorante in north Hollywood hosts a watch party for the debate between gubernatorial candidates Xavier Becerra, left, and Steve Hilton on Wednesday. Xavier Becerra and Steve Hilton, the candidates running to be California's next governor, clashed on Wednesday over taxes, immigration and regulating artificial intelligence in a testy debate held days before voters begin receiving their ballots in the heavily Democratic state. Hilton, the former Fox News host endorsed by Donald Trump, used the hourlong matchup, hosted by CNN in its studio in Burbank, California, to argue that Becerra, a former congressman who served as the US health and human services secretary during the Biden administration, was not actively campaigning and instead taking voters for granted. "He wasn't even supposed to be the candidate," Hilton, 57, said, referring to Becerra's unexpected success after an unusually wild primary campaign.

Things to Do in L.A. Tap to enable a layout that focuses on the article. California gubernatorial candidates Xavier Becerra, left, and Steve Hilton during CNN's California Gubernatorial Debate on Wednesday in CNN's studio in Burbank. The debate was moderated by CNN anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here .

A nonprofit in California is doing what Hugging Face has not--attempting to hold OpenAI legally accountable for the actions of its agents. A legal nonprofit sued OpenAI in a California court on Tuesday over the company's agents escaping a testing environment and hacking the open source AI platform Hugging Face . "OpenAI's actions straightforwardly violated California law," the suit alleges. The suit was filed by Legal Advocates for Safe Science and Technology (LASST) and the law firm Gerstein Harrow in California Superior Court in San Francisco, where OpenAI is headquartered. It alleges that OpenAI's agents violated California's Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act (CDAFA) by breaching Hugging Face over the summer.

Things to Do in L.A. This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here . See more from the L.A. Times in Google Search. What are the colors of the California license plate? You must see them a gazillion times a day.