California
Information is updated monthly and is only shown for states with defined laws.
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| State/Terr | AI Scope | Relevant Law | Law Link | Effective Date | Key Requirements | Enforcements & Penalties |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | User-Facing AI | California Bot Act | Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 17940 –17943 | July 1, 2019 | • Prohibits any person from using a bot online to communicate or interact with a person in California with the intent to mislead the person about the bot’s artificial identity for the purpose of knowingly deceiving the person about the content of the communication in order to incentivize a commercial transaction or influence a vote in an election. • Provides a safe harbor from liability where the person clearly and conspicuously discloses, in a manner reasonably designed to inform the relevant person, that a bot is in use. | Up to $2,500 per violation. |
| California | AI Intimate Images | Amendment of California Law Governing Distribution of Intimate Images | SB 926 | January 1, 2025 | • Extends prohibitions on the distribution of intimate images to include the intentional creation and distribution of any sexually explicit image of another identifiable person that was created in a manner that would cause a reasonable person to believe the image is an authentic image of the person depicted, under circumstances in which the person distributing the image knows or should know that distribution of the image will cause serious emotional distress, and the person depicted suffers that distress. | Existing criminal penalties apply. |
| California | AI in Social Media | Digital Identity Theft Act | SB 981 | January 1, 2025 | Requires a social media platform to: • Provide a reasonably accessible mechanism to California users to report to the social media platform any sexually explicit image or video of them posted on that platform that was created or altered through digitization without their consent (i.e., “sexually explicit digital identity theft”); • Temporarily block any covered material from being publicly viewable on the social media platform pending the social media platform’s determination on the report; and • Removing any covered material from being publicly viewable on the social media platform once the platform determines there is a reasonable basis to believe the reported material is sexually explicit digital identity theft. | Not specified. |
| California | AI in Government | California Government AI Inventory Law | Cal. Gov. Code § 11546.45.5 | January 1, 2024 | • Requires the California Department of Technology to inventory all high-risk automated decision systems used or proposed by state agencies on or before September 1, 2024, detailing their functions, benefits, data usage, and risk mitigation measures. • Requires the California Department of Technology to submit a report of the comprehensive inventory to specified committees of the California Legislature annually until January 1, 2029. | N/A |
| California | AI CSAM | Amendment of California CSAM Laws | Cal. Penal Code Part 1; Title 9; Chapter 7.5 (311-312.7) | January 1, 2025 | • Expands the scope of existing child pornography statutes to include matter that is digitally altered or generated by the use of AI. | Existing criminal penalties apply. |
| California | AI Definition | AI Definition Bill | AB 2885 | January 1, 2025 | • Generally establishes a uniform definition for artificial intelligence (AI) in California Law: “an engineered or machine-based system that varies in its level of autonomy and that can, for explicit or implicit objectives, infer from the input it receives how to generate outputs that can influence physical or virtual environments.” | N/A |
| California | AI Healthcare | Artificial Intelligence in Health Care Services | Cal. Gov. Code § Section 1339.75 AB 3030 | January 1, 2025 | • Requires health facilities, clinics, physician’s offices, and offices of a group practice that uses generative AI to generate written or verbal patient communications pertaining to patient clinical information to ensure those communications include both: - A disclaimer that indicates to the patient that a communication was generated by generative artificial intelligence; and - Clear instructions describing how a patient may contact a human healthcare provider, employee, or other appropriate person. • Exempts from disclosure written communications that are generated by AI that are reviewed by a licensed or certified healthcare provider. | Existing regulatory enforcement mechanisms. |
| California | AI Healthcare | AI Healthcare Utilization Law | SB 1120 | January 1, 2025 | • Requires health care service plans and disability insurers that use an artificial intelligence, algorithm, or other software tool for the purpose of utilization review or utilization management functions to ensure compliance with specified requirements, including that the tool bases its determination on specified information and is fairly and equitably applied. | Criminal penalties. |
| California | AI in Government | Generative Artificial Intelligence Accountability Act | SB 896 | January 1, 2025 | • Requires the Office of Emergency Services to perform a risk analysis of potential threats posed by the use of GenAI to California’s critical infrastructure, and certain other state agencies / actors to take AI into account in various government processes. • Requires a state agency or department that utilizes generative AI to directly communicate with a person regarding government services and benefits to ensure that those communications include both (i) a disclaimer that indicates to the person that the communication was generated by generative artificial intelligence and (ii) describing how the person may contact a human employee of the state agency or department. | N/A |
| California | AI Privacy | California Consumer Privacy Act | AB 1008 | January 1, 2025 | • Amends the definition of “personal information” under the CCPA to clarify personal information can exist in various formats, including, but not limited to, “abstract digital formats, including compressed or encrypted files, metadata, or artificial intelligence systems that are capable of outputting personal information.” | N/A |
| California | AI Transparency | Artificial Intelligence Training Data Transparency Act | AB 2013 | January 1, 2026 | • Requires AI developers to post information on the data used to train their generative AI on their websites, including a high-level summary of the datasets used, the sources or owners of the datasets, a description of how the data is used, the number of data points in the set, whether copyrighted / IP protected or licensed data is included, and the time period the data was collected (among other information). | Not specified. |
| California | AI in Political Advertising | Deceptive Media in Election Advertisements | AB 2839 | September 17, 2024 | • Prohibits a person, committee, or other entity from knowingly distributing an advertisement or other election communication that contains certain materially deceptive deepfake content with malice within 120 days of an election in California and, in specified cases, 60 days after an election. | General or special damages. |
| California | AI Calling | AI Call Disclosures Law | AB 2905 | January 1, 2025 | • Requires callers using an automatic dialing-announcing device to inform the person called if the prerecorded message uses an artificial voice generated or significantly altered using artificial intelligence. | Up to $500 per violation. |
| California | AI in Political Advertising | Defending Democracy from Deepfake Deception Act of 2024 | AB 2655 | January 1, 2025 | • Requires large online platforms with at least one million California users to develop and implement procedures for the use of state-of-the-art techniques to identify and either remove or label (depending on the closeness in proximity to an election) materially deceptive political deepfake content. • Requires the large online platform to also provide an easily accessible way for California residents to report such content to the platform. | Injunctive or other equitable relief by the Attorney General, any district attorney, or city attorney. |
| California | AI in Political Advertising | Amendment to the Political Reform Act | AB 2355 | January 1, 2025 | • Requires any committee that creates, originally publishes, or originally distributes a qualified political advertisement to include in the advertisement a specified disclosure that the advertisement was generated or substantially altered using artificial intelligence. | Up to $5,000 per violation. |
| California | AI Likeness | Amendment to Deceased Personality Protections | AB 1836 | January 1, 2025 | • Makes it unlawful for a person to produce, distribute, or make available the digital replica of a deceased personality’s voice or likeness in an expressive audiovisual work or sound recording without appropriate consent. | Greater of $10,000 or the actual damages suffered by a person controlling the rights to the deceased personality’s likeness. |
| California | AI Likeness | Replica of Voice or Likeness Law | AB 2602 | January 1, 2025 | • Makes any provision in an agreement for the performance of personal or professional services unenforceable where: - The provision allows for the creation and use of a digital replica of the individual’s voice or likeness in place of work the individual would otherwise have performed in person; - The provision does not include a reasonably specific description of the intended uses of the digital replica; and - The individual was not represented (i) by legal counsel or (ii) by a labor union. | Unenforceability of a violating contractual provision. |
| California | AI Transparency | California AI Transparency Act | Cal. Gov. Code § Section 22757.1 SB 942 | January 1, 2026 | • Requires providers of certain covered generative AI systems to: - Offer users the option to include in AI-generated image, video or audio content an indicator that the content is AI-generated content; - Include a detectable, latent disclosure in AI-generated image, audio, and video content created by the provider’s AI system that the content was generated by the system; and - Develop and make available tools to detect whether specified content was generated by the provider’s system. | Up to $5,000 per violation. |
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