Two California governors have visited China and signed environmental accords as if they were the heads of state instead of the heads of a state. Now the madness continues with the EU lobbying California over AI.

California, with its status as a tech-forward state and huge economy, has a chance to lead the way. So much so, in fact, that the European Union is trying to coordinate with the state on AI laws. The EU opened an office in San Francisco in 2022 and dispatched a tech envoy, Gerard de Graaf, to better communicate about laws and regulations around AI.

We are living through what de Graaf calls “the year of AI.” De Graaf and deputy head of the EU office in San Francisco Joanna Smolinska told CalMatters that if California lawmakers pass AI regulation in the coming months, the state can emerge as a standard bearer for the regulation of AI in the United States.

Which is exactly why foreign governments should not be involved.

States do not get to run their own foreign policy. They don’t get to sign accords with foreign nations. And yet California Democrats keep doing this sort of thing.

Last month, de Graaf traveled to Sacramento to speak with several state lawmakers key to AI regulation:

Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, a San Ramon Democrat, is author of a bill that requires businesses and state agencies report results of AI model tests in an effort to prohibit automated discrimination

Democratic State Sen. Scott Wiener from San Francisco is author of a bill to regulate generative AI
Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks, an East Bay Democrat, is author of a bill that would require online platforms put watermarks on images and videos generated by AI sometimes referred to as deepfakes ahead of elections this fall

And Sen. Tom Umberg, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who was referred to by Politico as the “California’s chief gatekeeper for AI rules.”

The meeting to discuss the bills was at least the sixth trip de Graaf or other EU officials made to Sacramento in two months. EU officials who helped write the AI Act and EU Commission Vice President Josep Fontelles also made trips to Sacramento and Silicon Valley in recent weeks.

So there is now good reason to think that California legislators are writing bills based on input from officials of a foreign governmental body which is actively visiting the state because they correctly see the corrupt members of the one-party state as the weak link in the U.S. economy.

Coordination between California and EU officials attempts to combine regulatory initiatives in two uniquely influential markets.

The definition of AI used by the California Senate Judiciary committee is informed by a number of voices including federal agencies, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the EU.

Again bizarre and wildly inappropriate. Federal agencies are part of the United States. The EU is not. Any diplomatic work conducted by the EU should go through the national government, not state governments. It’s one thing for states to engage in trade relations, but this is once again a case of state officials coordinating with foreign governments to influence national policy. It undermines the entire basis of the Constitution.

And yet California keeps getting away with it.