STANFORD, Calif. — Today, Senator Thomas J. Umberg (D–Santa Ana), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D–Orinda), Chair of the Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee, hosted a Joint Informational Hearing at Stanford University to examine how artificial intelligence is reshaping copyright law and California’s creative economy.

“California is home to some of the world’s most leading technology companies and influential storytellers,” said Senator Umberg. “Today’s hearing made clear that our responsibility is to thread the needle — to uphold strong intellectual property protections for artists while also giving innovators clear, workable rules that allow AI’s positive potential to move forward. Striking that balance is necessary, constantly evolving and already carrying real-time consequences for creators and our economy.”

“I'm deeply grateful to Senator Umberg, our committee members, and all who testified today at this informational hearing on AI and copyright. California's creative economy stands at a crossroads. The question before us is not whether AI has benefits, it does or whether it will transform creativity, it will, but whether that transformation will honor the rights of creators or exploit them,” said Assemblymember Bauer-Kahan. “Today's discussion made clear that we cannot allow California's artists, writers, musicians, and performers to bear the cost of technological progress. We must find solutions that both foster innovation and ensure creators are fairly compensated when their work fuels AI systems.”

The hearing brought together leading experts from the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI), UC Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, UCLA Institute for Technology, Law, and Policy, University of Chicago’s SAND Lab, Stanford Law School’s Program in Law, Science and Technology, and industry leaders from OpenAI, Stability AI, Loti AI, SAG-AFTRA and The Animation Guild.

Panelists offered a technical and legal overview of generative AI and training data, shared firsthand perspectives from artists and creators whose livelihoods are being disrupted, compared emerging regulatory approaches in the European Union and other jurisdictions and explored potential policy solutions to better protect creative rights while allowing responsible innovation to move forward.

"I am pleased that Stanford Law School is hosting a joint hearing of
the California Senate Judiciary and Privacy Committees on AI
provenance and attribution rights. It is rare to have a joint hearing,
and even rarer to have it outside Sacramento. By traveling to the
heart of Silicon Valley, the Senate can call on the extraordinary
expertise Stanford offers in both AI science and AI policy," said Professor Mark Lemley, William H. Neukom Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, Director of the Stanford Program in Law, Science and Technology and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
"My own testimony focuses on the challenges of determining when an AI
system relies on any particular piece of training data and the
complications of trying to have an AI "unlearn" something in its
training data."

California’s creative sectors support hundreds of thousands of jobs and generate tens of billions of dollars in economic activity each year. Witnesses highlighted both the opportunities AI presents to enhance creative work and the risks it poses if unregulated systems are allowed to flood markets with synthetic content built on uncompensated human labor.

The joint hearing is part of ongoing legislative oversight of artificial intelligence in California. Earlier efforts have included defining AI and generative AI in state law and examining broader impacts on privacy, consumer protection and civil rights. 

For additional information and video recording, please visit the Senate Judiciary Committee website at: https://sjud.senate.ca.gov/hearings 

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 Senator Thomas J. Umberg represents the 34th Senate District, which includes the cities of Anaheim, Buena Park, Fullerton, Garden Grove, La Habra, Long Beach, Orange, Placentia, Santa Ana, and East and South Whittier. Umberg is a retired U.S. Army Colonel, former federal prosecutor, and small businessman. He and his wife, Brigadier General Robin Umberg, USA (ret.), live in Orange County.

Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda), represents California's 16th Assembly District. Since her election in 2018, Rebecca has championed legislation addressing reproductive rights, environmental protection, and public safety. As Chair of the Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee, she is leading California's efforts to regulate artificial intelligence, focusing on protecting consumers—particularly children—from harmful AI-generated content while fostering responsible innovation.