California AI Transparency Act.

Existing law requires the Secretary of Government Operations to develop a coordinated plan to, among other things, investigate the feasibility of, and obstacles to, developing standards and technologies for state departments to determine digital content provenance. For the purpose of informing that coordinated plan, existing law requires the secretary to evaluate, among other things, the impact of the proliferation of deepfakes, defined to mean audio or visual content that has been generated or manipulated by artificial intelligence that would falsely appear to be authentic or truthful and that features depictions of people appearing to say or do things they did not say or do without their consent, on state government, California-based businesses, and residents of the state. This bill, the California AI Transparency Act, would, among other things, require a covered provider, as defined, to make available an artificial intelligence (AI) detection tool at no cost to the user that meets certain criteria, including that the AI detection tool is publicly accessible. The bill would require a covered provider to offer the user an option to include a manifest disclosure in image, video, or audio content, or content that is any combination thereof, created or altered by the covered provider's generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) system that, among other things, identifies content as AI-generated content and is clear, conspicuous, appropriate for the medium of the content, and understandable to a reasonable person. The bill would require a covered provider to include a latent disclosure in AI-generated image, video, audio content, or content that is any combination thereof, created by the covered provider's GenAI system that, among other things, to the extent that it is technically feasible and reasonable conveys certain information, either directly or through a link to a permanent internet website, regarding the provenance of the content. The bill would require a covered provider that knows a third-party licensee modified a licensed GenAI system such that it is no longer capable of including the disclosures described above in content the system creates or alters to revoke the license within 96 hours of discovering the licensee's action and would require a third-party licensee to cease using a licensed GenAI system after the license for the system has been revoked by the covered provider. This bill would make a covered provider that violates these provisions liable for a civil penalty in the amount of $5,000 per violation to be collected in a civil action filed by the Attorney General, a city attorney, or a county counsel, as prescribed. The bill would, for a violation by a third-party licensee of the requirement to cease using a licensed GenAI system after the license of the system has been revoked, authorize the Attorney General, a county counsel, or a city attorney to bring a civil action for injunctive relief and reasonable attorney's fees and costs. This bill would make its provisions operative on January 1, 2026.