(a) Definitions
As used in this rule, the following definitions apply:
(1) “Court staff” means all employees, contractors, volunteers, and any other persons working for or on behalf of the court.
(2) “Generative artificial intelligence” or “generative AI” means a computer-based system that uses machine learning or similar techniques to produce new content—such as text, images, audio, video, code, or data visualizations—in response to user inputs. Generative AI systems create content that is not pre-programmed or explicitly retrieved but synthesized based on underlying models trained on large datasets and may include integration with other sources, such as real-time access to proprietary databases.
(3) “Judicial officer” means all judges of the superior courts, all justices of the Courts of Appeal and the Supreme Court, all temporary and assigned judges, and all subordinate judicial officers.
(4) “Public generative AI system” means a generative AI system that allows anyone other than court staff or judicial officers to access the data that courts input or upload to the system or to use that data to train AI systems. “Public generative AI system” does not include any system that the court creates or manages, such as a generative AI system created for internal court use, or any court-operated system the court uses to provide those outside the court with access to court data, such as a court-operated chatbot that answers questions about court services.
(b) Generative AI use policies
Any court that does not prohibit the use of generative AI by court staff or judicial officers must adopt a generative AI use policy by December 15, 2025. This rule applies to the superior courts, the Courts of Appeal, and the Supreme Court.
(c) Policy scope
A use policy created to comply with this rule must cover the use of generative AI by court staff for any purpose and by judicial officers for any task outside their adjudicative role.
(d) Policy requirements
Each court’s generative AI use policy must:
(1) Prohibit the entry of confidential, personal identifying, or other nonpublic information into a public generative AI system. Personal identifying information includes driver’s license numbers; dates of birth; Social Security numbers; National Crime Information and Criminal Identification and Information numbers; addresses and phone numbers of parties, victims, witnesses, and court personnel; medical or psychiatric information; financial information; account numbers; and any other content sealed by court order or deemed confidential by court rule or statute.
(2) Prohibit the use of generative AI to unlawfully discriminate against or disparately impact individuals or communities based on age, ancestry, color, ethnicity, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, military or veteran status, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and any other classification protected by federal or state law.
(3) Require court staff and judicial officers who create or use generative AI material to take reasonable steps to verify that the material is accurate, and to take reasonable steps to correct any erroneous or hallucinated output in any material used.
(4) Require court staff and judicial officers who create or use generative AI material to take reasonable steps to remove any biased, offensive, or harmful content in any material used.
(5) Require disclosure of the use of or reliance on generative AI if the final version of a written, visual, or audio work provided to the public consists entirely of generative AI outputs. Disclosure must be made through a clear and understandable label, watermark, or statement that describes how generative AI was used and identifies the system used.
(6) Require compliance with all applicable laws, court policies, and ethical and professional conduct rules, codes, and policies when using generative AI.
Rule 10.430 adopted effective September 1, 2025.
Advisory Committee Comment
Subdivision (a). The definition of “court staff” in this subdivision is intended for use in this rule only.
Subdivision (c). California Standards of Judicial Administration, standard 10.80 covers the use of generative AI by judicial officers for any task within their adjudicative role.
Subdivision (d). This subdivision does not require any court to permit the use of generative AI by court staff or judicial officers. Courts may entirely prohibit the use of generative AI and may also set restrictions on how generative AI may be used for court-related work, such as allowing or prohibiting the use of specific generative AI tools, allowing use of generative AI only for particular tasks, or requiring approval for the use of generative AI. Courts that are required by subdivision (b) to adopt a use policy because they are not prohibiting the use of generative AI for court-related work can comply with subdivision (d) by adopting verbatim the nonoptional sections of the Model Policy for Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence, or by adopting a policy that uses substantially similar language. Courts adopting a generative AI use policy under this rule may make their policy more restrictive than the rule requires and may include provisions not covered by rule 10.430.