Governor AI working group release 2025-03-18

Citation

Office of Governor Gavin Newsom, “California strengthens its position as the global AI leader with new working report issued by experts and academics”, press release, San Francisco, March 18, 2025. https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/03/18/california-strengthens-its-position-as-the-global-ai-leader-with-new-working-report-issued-by-experts-and-academics/. Wiki copy: raw/legislative/Governor AI working group release 2025-03-18.md. Read 2026-10-15.

They are lines 12-26 and 36-42 of a full transcription. [...] marks the cuts.

Bottom line

• The release announces the draft of the Governor’s working group report. It does not mention CalCompute.
• It says California is “home to over half of the world’s top AI companies”.
• It describes an August 2024 AI partnership with NVIDIA that brings AI resources into community colleges.
• It names the three lead authors: Fei-Fei Li (Stanford), Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace) and Jennifer Tour Chayes (UC Berkeley).

Background

The Governor asked AI experts to study frontier models and their risks. The draft report came out on March 18, 2025. The final report came out on June 17, 2025 (California Report on Frontier AI Policy 2025-06-17). SB 53’s transparency rules draw on it (Wiener SB-53 expansion release 2025-07-09).

Key claims

• Newsom quote.

  “The future happens in California first – including the development of powerful AI technology. As home to over half of the world’s top AI companies, our state carries a unique responsibility in leading the safe advancement of this industry in a way that improves our communities, maintains our economic dominance, and ensures that this fast-moving technology benefits the public good.”

• Economy. California is “the fifth-largest economy in the world and the birthplace of the tech industry”.
• California “is home to 32 of the 50 top AI companies worldwide.”
• The report’s authors include Dr. Fei-Fei Li, “Founding Co-Director of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute”; Mariano-Florentino “Tino” Cuéllar, “President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace”; and Dr. Jennifer Tour Chayes, “Dean of the College of Computing, Data Science, and Society at UC Berkeley.”
• The report covers “evidence-based policymaking, balancing the need for transparency with considerations such as security risks, and determining the appropriate level of regulation”.
• The authors invited public comment through https://www.cafrontieraigov.org/.
• NVIDIA partnership. “In August 2024, the state partnered with NVIDIA to launch a first-of-its-kind AI collaboration, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom and NVIDIA founder & CEO Jensen Huang.” Its aims include: “Train students, educators, and workers”.

  Among other goals, it strives to bring new AI resources into community colleges from NVIDIA — including curriculum and certifications, hardware and software, AI labs and workshops, and more — to open new pathways for students, educators, and workers to learn new skills and advance their careers.

Evidence and method

A press release. It gives no source for the “32 of the 50” figure or the “fifth-largest economy” figure. It does not give the terms of the NVIDIA partnership.

Limits

• No CalCompute content.
• The NVIDIA passage states aims. It does not say what NVIDIA delivered, or to which colleges.

⚠️ Contradiction: This release (March 18, 2025) calls California “the fifth-largest economy in the world”. The signing release (September 29, 2025) calls it “the world’s fourth-largest economy” (Newsom SB-53 signing release 2025-09-29). The rank may have changed between the two dates. Cite a primary economic source, not either release.

⚠️ Contradiction: This release says “32 of the 50 top AI companies”. The 2023 SB 294 announcement says “35 of the world’s top 50 AI companies” (Wiener SB 294 announcement 2023-09-13). Neither names its source.