On September 17, 2024, Assembly Bill 2355 Political Reform Act of 1974: political advertisements: artificial intelligence was approved by the Governor of California, following its introduction to the California State Assembly on February 12, 2024.

Scope

The Act applies to 'qualified political advertisements,' which are defined as advertisements that contain any image, audio, or video that is generated or substantially altered using artificial intelligence (AI). Any image, audio, video, or other media is considered 'generated or substantially altered using artificial intelligence' if:

• the visual or audio media is entirely created using AI and would falsely appear to a reasonable person to be authentic; or
• the visual or audio media is materially altered by AI such that the alteration would cause a reasonable person to have a fundamentally different understanding of the altered media when comparing it to an unaltered version.  

Requirements

The Act imposes the following requirements on committees that create, originally publish, or originally distribute qualified political advertisements:

• include specified disclosures that the advertisement was generated or substantially altered using AI; and
• comply with formatting requirements for such disclosure depending on the medium of the qualified political advertisement.

Enforcement

The Act would authorize the Fair Political Practices Commission (the Commission) to administer and implement the Act. Additionally, the Commission may determine violations and may seek injunctive relief to compel compliance or pursue any administrative or civil remedies. Violations under the Act would not constitute a misdemeanor.

You can read the Act here and its legislative history here