Governor Gavin Newsom is directing state agencies to establish an AI Cyber Defense Program, strengthen cybersecurity coordination across state government, expand AI-enabled defenses for critical infrastructure and local governments, and improve preparedness for emerging AI cybersecurity incidents.

(Subscription required) Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overturned a lower court order that blocked use of Perplexity’s AI shopping agent on Amazon’s website. The court said Amazon isn’t likely to succeed in showing Perplexity’s AI assistant illegally “accessed” the company’s servers under the federal Consumer Fraud and Abuse Act.

(Subscription required) Gov. Gavin Newsom has appointed his top staff attorney to the Third District Court of Appeal as he rushes to fill appellate vacancies around the state in his final months in office. Sapp was one of eight appellate court appointees Newsom’s office announced Friday. 

A U.S. appeals court on Monday allowed ​thousands of lawsuits to move forward against Meta Platforms, Alphabet's Google, ByteDance's TikTok and Snap Inc's Snapchat over claims they designed their products to be ‌addictive to young users. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an appeal by Meta and TikTok seeking to overturn a lower court ruling requiring them to face more than 3,000 lawsuits filed in federal court, saying the companies had appealed too early.