California

The California Public Utilities Commission has awarded $45 million in grant funding to three regional Internet service providers, the Monterey Bay Economic Partnership announced recently.

Although the exact date has yet to be finalized, the Silicon Valley drone technology company Matternet will launch its pilot program in its Northern California home city later this year.

A bipartisan bill to make Google and Facebook pay news companies whose work appears on their platforms to help struggling media faced its first test in the state Senate recently, but it passed out of committee.

Timing and cost are not yet clear, but the state is seeking bids from vendors to harness artificial intelligence to translate a range of documents and websites around “health and social services information, programs, benefits and services.”

Providers around Fort Worth, Texas, and the San Francisco Bay Area are using technology to expand on-demand options for riders. The availability can help connect first- and last-mile areas that lack service.

State regulators shot down an unpopular proposal by AT&T to scrap landline service for much of California, which critics say strips some residents of a communications lifeline during emergencies.

The California Public Utilities Commission has upheld its March decision to approve Waymo's expansion from San Francisco to San Mateo County and Los Angeles over protests from local officials.

California legislators are rushing to address concerns through roughly 50 AI-related bills, many of which aim to place safeguards around the technology, which lawmakers say could cause societal harm.

A business group backed by robot-taxi companies is celebrating the demise of a proposed California law that would have let cities regulate the autonomous vehicles and fine them for breaking traffic laws.

A bill approved by the state Senate this week would specify that community college courses must be taught by qualified human instructors, although it says nothing about using AI for grading or tutoring.

The February cyber attack may have compromised personal information belonging to roughly 200,000 clients, employees and others, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said last week.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has named Jason Lally, deputy director of Data Services and Engineering at the state Office of Data and Innovation, to the role. Joy Bonaguro, the previous state CDO, stepped down in June 2023.

New technologies in contactless fare payment systems enable riders to not carry cash and can save them money through features like fare-capping. And for transit systems, they can be an informational gold mine.

The U.S. Air Force now admits what thousands of residents have known for months — sonic booms from Vandenberg Space Base regularly rattle a large swath of Southern California, across more than 100 miles of coastline.

A former mayor of Compton, Calif., who oversaw the country’s largest experiment with universal basic income, thinks a new software platform can help bootstrap underserved communities.

A multibillion-dollar plan to develop 10,000 miles of broadband infrastructure has hit financial headwinds, forcing the state to consider what not to build. Some construction is already underway.

Since the SAT went fully digital in March, California has seen demand exceed capacity for SAT weekend administrations because of a shortage of high schools and other institutions willing to serve as weekend test centers.

Using artificial intelligence from a value-based perspective was a major theme during the 2024 Code for America annual summit. The organization also announced its new AI Studio.