Governor Gavin Newsom on August 10, 2026 directed California’s state agencies to stand up what his office calls a first-in-the-nation AI Cyber Defense Program, housed inside the California Cybersecurity Integration Center and aimed at protecting state systems, local governments, and critical infrastructure against AI-enabled attacks. The program applies AI to vulnerability detection, network hardening, and incident response. Alongside it, the Governor directed agencies to expand local…