Xavier Becerra Unveils His Ai Vision For California

Democrat Xavier Becerra is getting serious about tech policy after catapulting into the upper echelon of California’s gubernatorial field.

The former Health and Human Services secretary on Monday unveiled an 11-point plan, shared first with POLITICO, that calls for harnessing artificial intelligence in education and government, while implementing guardrails for workers and kids.

Becerra’s memo is his most detailed vision yet for governing AI in the home of Silicon Valley, and it mirrors his political style.

He leans into fighting Trump, as he did when he was California’s top prosecutor, and embraces some populist AI policies backed by his Democratic gubernatorial rival Tom Steyer. But the plan strikes a more diplomatic tone than Steyer in balancing safety and innovation, pitching wonky ideas like funding a state-run cloud computing cluster and speeding up permitting for data centers that use clean energy.

“I am determined to channel this technology for human benefit, not as an engine of private wealth for the few, but as a force that lifts every Californian,” Becerra said in the memo. “The question is never whether to innovate, it’s whether we have the leadership to make sure innovation works for everyone.”

For Becerra, that balance is the key to positioning California as the nation’s “gold standard” for AI policy, compared to a Trump administration he argues has “abdicated federal responsibility on AI governance.”

The plan could help shore up Becerra’s tech policy bona fides. Approximately a dozen industry representatives and tech critics who spoke with POLITICO said Becerra’s past stints as state attorney general and health secretary offer few clues for how he would approach California’s golden goose industry as governor, save for antitrust and data privacy issues.

“For someone with a public service career as long as his, there’s less to go on than you would assume,” said a California-based tech lobbyist, granted anonymity to speak candidly.

Becerra spokesperson Jonathan Underland said the AI plan reflects conversations with “Californians, workers [and] industry leaders” but declined to share names.

So far, Becerra's gubernatorial campaign has received little money from tech donors, some of whom continue to hold out for a Silicon Valley favorite, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, despite him consistently polling in the mid-single digits.

In his plan, Becerra vows to work with industry by investing in workforce upskilling and expanding AI literacy through new programming for schools, libraries and community colleges — ideas that companies like OpenAI, Anthropic and Google favor.

And similar to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, Becerra sees the tech sector as a “partner” in innovating government. His plan identifies faster permitting, health risk detection and delivery of benefits like Medi-Cal or food aid as areas where AI could accelerate public services.

At the same time, Becerra promises strict enforcement of California’s existing AI rules. His plan calls for independently auditing AI systems deployed in state government, and ensuring any productivity benefits “reach every community, not just the ones already at the top.”

He zeroes in on suicidal content and “manipulative design” in AI chatbots targeting kids as top safety risks — a priority shared by state lawmakers who are pursuing new youth AI guardrails this year.

Becerra also outlines labor protections. He says state workers should be consulted before AI is deployed in their workplace, calls for “continuously” tracking AI’s large-scale effects on employment, and backs “human review standards” for “high-stakes” automated decision-making.

Some public sector workers are actively negotiating terms governing AI in labor contracts, and state labor leaders like California Labor Federation President Lorena Gonzalez have argued the issues are ripe for the bargaining table.

In another move that may please labor, Becerra’s team confirmed that he would reverse autonomous trucking rules approved by the California DMV last week, following his previous support for keeping human drivers in truck cabins. Labor groups like the Teamsters oppose the DMV rules because they would allow AV trucks to be tested on public roads, potentially threatening union trucking jobs.

Much of Becerra’s previous exposure to tech issues came during his tenure as attorney general of California from 2017 to 2021, when privacy and antitrust — not AI — were pressing issues. On both, his reception was mixed.

Privacy advocates who spoke with POLITICO praised his work to implement the landmark 2018 California Consumer Privacy Act, which boosted Californians’ ability to protect and delete personal information online. However, they diverged on Becerra’s broader record.

Mary Stone Ross, a key CCPA architect and privacy advocate who’s since relocated to Washington, said Becerra “didn’t just roll over to tech companies.” Yet Tracy Rosenberg, policy lead for the nonprofit Oakland Privacy, saw his role as “largely ministerial” and said his rhetoric on broader privacy issues was muted.

“I don't remember a lot of public statements or politicking on the issue,” Rosenberg said of Becerra. ”Certainly, Rob Bonta as AG has been much more outspoken.”

Arguably Becerra’s most significant experience in confronting Big Tech was from his time handling antitrust cases as AG. In 2019, he was a notable holdout on multi-state antitrust investigations into Facebook and Google.

Becerra’s reluctance to publicly join or even discuss the absence baffled antitrust advocates, Republican lawmakers in Sacramento and some other state attorneys general, who saw California as well positioned to add much-needed resources to a major swing at the companies. Alabama had been the only other state sitting out the Google probe.

California eventually launched its own investigations into both tech giants. Amid speculation that Becerra had hesitated because of politics or to avoid disrupting an important base for the state economy, the then-AG said his delayed Facebook announcement was a matter of strategy. But his campaign also caught flak for immediately fundraising off the move. “Xavier sued Facebook,” an email subject line to donors read.

One of the anti-monopoly groups that had urged Becerra at the time to more aggressively scrutinize the biggest tech companies in his backyard says the history is still relevant.

“As attorney general, Xavier Becerra made absolutely clear that he was willing to ignore lawbreaking by tech corporations based in California,” said Barry Lynn, executive director for the Open Markets Institute. “Absent a strong statement explaining how he has changed his thinking since then, it is a huge stretch to believe he would make this fight a priority as governor.”

Still, to others, the investigations pointed to an inconclusive record. Michael Carrier, a Rutgers Law School professor specializing in antitrust issues, said it’s impossible to know for sure why Becerra took longer than other state AGs to join the fray. California later participated in the Justice Department’s federal lawsuit against Google search as well as a multi-state lawsuit against Facebook’s acquisitions.

“Perhaps it was a reluctance to go after a leading CA industry. Or perhaps it was Becerra’s interest in pursuing a Facebook privacy case separately from the other states,” Carrier said in an email.

Underland, the Becerra spokesperson, defended the former AG’s actions. He said in a statement that “No attorney general at the time had the courage to take on the world’s biggest tech companies the way Xavier Becerra did.” Underland pointed to cases Becerra pursued against Amazon, Google, T-Mobile and Sprint as evidence that he “stood up for workers and consumers.”

William Kovacic, a longtime antitrust watcher and former chair of the Federal Trade Commission, told POLITICO that although Becerra’s silence on the investigations struck him as “puzzling” in 2019, “upon reflection, there are good reasons for the way [he and his team] acted.”

While Kovacic considered Becerra’s decision to fundraise off his Facebook suit “such bad form,” he said he thinks the former attorney general generally struck the right balance in his dealings with the tech sector.

“I always had the sense that he and his people would listen to the industry,” Kovacic said. “Elected officials in the state walk a very difficult line between being tough, assertive and effective as regulators, and at the same time listening carefully to the voice of politically powerful institutions.”

Chase DiFeliciantonio contributed to this report. 

A version of this story first appeared in California Decoded, POLITICO’s morning newsletter for Pros about how the Golden State is shaping tech policy within its borders and beyond. Like this content? POLITICO Pro subscribers receive it daily. Learn more at www.politicopro.com.