TCAI’s Jai Jaisimha testifies at California AI Abuse Act hearing in Sacramento
Transparency Coalition co-founder and COO Jai Jaisimha, above, testified at today’s California Assembly hearing: “There’s a lot of concern around the integrity of judicial evidence.”
June 17, 2025 — Transparency Coalition COO Jai Jaisimha testified in Sacramento earlier this morning at a legislative hearing on SB 11, the California AI Abuse Act, a bill that would make computer-manipulated or AI-generated images or videos subject to the state’s right of publicity law and criminal false impersonation statutes.
The bill would also instruct the California Judicial Council to review the impact of artificial intelligence on the introduction of evidence in court proceedings, and develop any necessary rules of court to assist courts in assessing claims that evidence that is being introduced has been generated by or manipulated by artificial intelligence.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Angelique Ashby, was approved by the Senate 38-0 on June 2. It is now making its way through the Assembly.
At this morning’s Assembly Judiciary Committee hearing the bill was presented by Sen. Tom Umberg, as Sen. Ashby was unable to attend.
State Sen. Tom Umberg, left, filled in for bill author Sen. Angelique Ashby at today’s hearing.
Click on image for video of Sen. Umberg’s testimony.
Sen. Umberg told the comittee: “The AI Abuse Protection Act establishes a legal framework for regulating artificial intelligence, voice image, and video cloning technology.”
“It requires a warning when someone is [working with] an artificial intelligence model, a warning that says, hey, this could be misused. The bill also develops standards for regulating artificial intelligence in connection with evidence” offered within the judicial system.
concern about the integrity of evidence
TCAI’s Jaisimha testified:
“We all know that there is clear evidence of consumer harm from the creation or abuse of these AI tools.
AI model developers have a duty of care that they're not fulfilling. They're able to produce harmful images because when these models are being developed or tested, proper care is not being exercised.
There is strong evidence that consumer warnings can affect behavior—and the State of California has been a leader in deploying them.
At TCAI we also believe that the strong penalties and legal recourse contained within SB 11 will encourage model developers to exercise greater care. The penal code violation and civil litigation provisions within the bill are very important provisions [with respect to incentivizing greater care.]
Finally, the judicial council guidelines contained within the bill are super important. There's a lot of concern around the integrity of judicial evidence. There are technologies available today to properly label and ensure that the data underlying judicial evidence is secure all the way through its consideration in the justice system.”
video clip of testimony
Click on the image below for Jaisimha’s full video testimony.
committee approval
Following this morning’s testimony, SB 11 received unanimous approval from the Assembly Judiciary Committee. The bill will next be considered by the Assembly Committee on Public Safety.
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