California Enacts New AI Laws, Including Protections Against Deepfakes and Actor Impersonation

Newsom signs deepfake, other AI bills into law in California

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Thursday signed multiple artificial intelligence (AI) bills aimed at preventing the misuse of sexually explicit deepfakes. Newsom's signature on the three AI-related bills marks the Golden State's latest efforts to place guardrails on the advancing technology amid concerns over the spread of deepfakes, which can generate images, audio, video and digitally alter likeness and voices. The set of laws establishes new mandates for AI developers and social media companies to prevent irresponsible use of the technology. "We're in an era where digital tools like AI have immense capabilities, but they can also be abused against other people," Newsom said in a statement. "We're stepping up to protect Californians." One of the three laws -- SB 926 -- makes it illegal to create and circulate sexually explicit images of a real person that appear real and cause the person "serious emotional distress." SB 981 mandates social media platforms create ways for users to report sexually explicit deepfakes of themselves, to which the companies must temporarily block the content while an investigation takes place. The third bill, SB 942, requires AI-generated content to come with a disclosure for users to more easily be able to identify this type of content. California is home to 32 of the world's "50 leading AI companies," according to Newsom's office, and has become a major hub for AI-related legislation as a result. Earlier this week, Newsom signed two other bills aimed at protecting actors and performers from having their names, images and likenesses copied by artificial intelligence without authorization. A flurry of Hollywood stars has begun speaking out about what they feel is a lack of safeguards surrounding the rapidly developing technology. In her endorsement of Vice President Harris earlier this month, megastar Taylor Swift cited her concerns about the technology's power to deceive people. She specifically noted how former President Trump shared several fake images of her and her fans last month, claiming he had her support. Fran Drescher, the president of SAG-AFTRA, a labor union representing performers and broadcasters, applauded Newsom's signing of the bills this week, stating they will help ensure the protection of Hollywood figures. The California governor has yet to sign a major AI regulation bill, known as the Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act, which passed in the state Legislature last month. He must sign or veto it by Sept. 30. AI startups, major technology firms, researchers and some lawmakers are divided over whether the legislation would throttle the development of the quickly advancing technology or establish much-needed guardrails. Newsom is facing pressure from both sides of the argument, especially from those in Silicon Valley. The governor has indicated skepticism about reining in AI technology, which could bring large amounts of money to the Golden State, but he has remained tight-lipped about the bill. When reached for comment on Monday, the governor's office told The Hill the measure "will be evaluated on its merits."

Here is what's illegal under California's 8 (and counting) new AI laws | TechCrunch

California Governor Gavin Newsom is currently considering 38 AI-related bills, including the highly contentious SB 1047, which the state's legislature sent to his desk for final approval. These bills try to address the most pressing issues in artificial intelligence: everything from futuristic AI systems creating existential risk, deepfake nudes from AI image generators, to Hollywood studios creating AI clones of dead performers. "Home to the majority of the world's leading AI companies, California is working to harness these transformative technologies to help address pressing challenges while studying the risks they present," said Governor Newsom's office in a press release. So far, Governor Newsom has signed eight of them into law, some of which are America's most far reaching AI laws yet. Newsom signed two laws that address the creation and spread of deepfake nudes on Thursday. SB 926 creates a new crime in California, making it illegal to blackmail someone with AI-generated nude images that resemble them. SB 981, which also became law on Tuesday, requires social media platforms to establish channels for users to report deepfake nudes that resemble them. The content must then be temporarily blocked while the platform investigates it, and permanently removed if confirmed. Also on Thursday, Newsom signed a bill into law to help the public identify AI-generated content. SB 942 requires widely used generative AI systems to disclose they are AI-generated in their content's provenance data. There are several free tools out there that can help people read this provenance data and detect AI-generated content. Earlier this week, California's governor signed three laws cracking down on AI deepfakes that could influence elections. One of California's new laws, AB 2655, requires large online platforms, like Facebook and X, to remove or label AI deepfakes related to elections, as well as create channels to report such content. Candidates and elected officials can seek injunctive relief if a large online platform is not complying with the act. Another law, AB 2839, takes aim at social media users who post, or repost, AI deepfakes that could deceive voters about upcoming elections. The law went into effect immediately on Tuesday, and Newsom suggested Elon Musk may be at risk of violating it. AI-generated political advertisements now require outright disclosures under California's new law, AB 2355. That means moving forward, Trump may not be able to get away with posting AI deepfakes of Taylor Swift endorsing him on Truth Social (she endorsed Kamala Harris). The FCC has proposed a similar disclosure requirement at a national level and has already made robocalls using AI-generated voices illegal. Two laws that Newsom signed on Tuesday -- which SAG-AFTRA, the nation's largest film and broadcast actors union, was pushing for -- create new standards for California's media industry. AB 2602 requires studios to obtain permission from an actor before creating an AI-generated replica of their voice or likeness. Meanwhile, AB 1836 prohibits studios from creating digital replicas of deceased performers without consent from their estates (e.g., legally cleared replicas were used in the recent "Alien" and "Star Wars" movies, as well as in other films). Governor Newsom still has 30 AI-related bills to decide on before the end of September. During a chat with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff on Tuesday during the 2024 Dreamforce conference, Newsom may have tipped his hat about SB 1047, and how he's thinking about regulating the AI industry more broadly. "There's one bill that is sort of outsized in terms of public discourse and consciousness; it's this SB 1047," said Newsom onstage Tuesday. "What are the demonstrable risks in AI and what are the hypothetical risks? I can't solve for everything. What can we solve for? And so that's the approach we're taking across the spectrum on this." Check back on this article for updates on what AI laws California's governor signs, and what he doesn't.

California Governor Signs Law to Protect Actors From AI Clones

California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed two bills into law that will protect actors and performers from unauthorized AI clones. On Tuesday, Newsom signed two laws that will protect actors from AI replicas of their likeness or voice being used without their consent. The first bill AB 2602 bars contract provisions that facilitate the use of a digital replica of a performer in a project instead of an in-person performance from that human being, unless there is a "reasonably specific" description of the intended use of the digital replica and the performer was represented by legal counsel or a labor union in negotiations. Meanwhile, the second bill AB 1836 requires entertainment employers to gain the consent of a deceased performer's estate before using a digital replica of that person. The new law refines an "expressive works" exemption from the state's existing postmortem right of publicity laws that entertainment companies otherwise could have pointed to in an era of AI digital replicas. The ability of filmmakers to use AI technology to create digital replicas of actors or deceased performers is still relatively new -- and highly controversial. Last year, SAG-AFTRA, the actors' union that represents 160,000 entertainment industry professionals, had a four-month-long strike against Hollywood studios -- with AI being a major sticking point. Actors were concerned that Hollywood studios would create AI replicas of them in perpetuity without their consent. Newsom's new legislation has the support of SAG-AFTRA as well as the California Labor Federation. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Governor Newsom visited the Los Angeles headquarters of performers' union SAG-AFTRA on Monday to officially greenlight bills AB 2602 and AB 1836. "We continue to wade through uncharted territory when it comes to how AI and digital media is transforming the entertainment industry, but our North Star has always been to protect workers," Newsom says in a statement. "This legislation ensures the industry can continue thriving while strengthening protections for workers and how their likeness can or cannot be used." This week, the California Governor signed some of the toughest laws against AI-generated content in the U.S. yet -- including legislation that makes it illegal to create deepfakes related to the 2024 election.

It's Now Officially Illegal to Use AI to Impersonate a Human Actor in Hollywood

California has passed two new bills protecting actors and performers against AI, in a potentially precedent-setting moment for tech legislation across the country. While these largely overlap with the AI safeguards that SAG-AFTRA passed last year, the new laws not only bolster those existing protections but extend them to everyone in California -- not just to people working in front of a camera in Hollywood, as IndieWire notes. Together, the bills, which were passed by Governor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday, make it illegal to use an AI-generated digital replica of an actor's likeness or voice -- or technically, any Californian's -- without their explicit consent. If a studio is seeking permission to replicate a performer, the contract must specifically state how it plans to use the AI clone. Studios will also be prohibited from cloning deceased actors unless they have permission from their estates. "It is a momentous day for SAG-AFTRA members and everyone else, because the AI protections we fought so hard for last year are now expanded upon by California law thanks to the Legislature and Governor Gavin Newsom," Fran Drescher, president of the labor union, said at its headquarters in LA. "They say as California goes, so goes the nation!" Taking this stance is significant for Newsom, who remains a controversial figure in the assessment of Silicon Valley bigwigs. In passing the laws, he's maintaining a delicate balancing act of appeasing California's biggest industries: Hollywood and big tech. And because 35 of the world's top 50 AI startups are based in California, he could also be prefiguring how AI legislation will play out across the nation. That balancing act isn't an easy thing to pull off, given that the rise of generative AI has meant that the two industries don't always see eye to eye. Or at the very least, the creatives that populate the entertainment industry have grown bitter about AI, even though the major studios that employ them are often capitulating to it. Along with the protections for performers, Newsom also passed three laws to crackdown on AI deepfakes, making it illegal to create and distribute them with the intent to deceive voters during an election cycle. But what could be California's most consequential piece of AI law -- which the industry is ardently advocating against -- still hangs in the balance. SB 1047, which was passed by state lawmakers last month but awaits Newsom's approval, would throw a spanner into the works by potentially holding tech companies responsible for the outputs of their AI models. Newsom, so far, has hesitated on pulling the trigger, fearing that it could stymie AI development in the state. "We dominate this space, and I don't want to lose that," Newsom said Tuesday, as quoted by Bloomberg. "The impact of signing wrong bills over the course of a few years could have a profound impact" on the state's competitiveness, he added. But that's a whole other can of worms. It'll be interesting to see how California plans to enforce the sweeping set of regulations -- also controversial -- it's already passed.

Governor Gavin Newsom signed a flurry of AI bills -- but not the most high-profile one

Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Company's weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. You can sign up to receive this newsletter every week here. Newsom signs pile of AI bills as the SB 1047 deadline approaches California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a pile of AI bills into law on Tuesday. Two of those bills concern the rights of actors in a world where studios have the option to use an AI-generated version of an actor rather than the genuine article. AB 2602 requires studios to state explicitly in contracts with actors that they're claiming the right to create an AI-generated likeness of their body or voice. AB 1836 imposes a 70-year requirement in which studios must get consent from a deceased actor's estate before generating an AI likeness. (Both bills build on AI-related concessions that actors won during the writers' strike.) Another trio of bills signed into law by Newsom deal with the use of AI in politics. AB 2655 requires online platforms to remove or label deepfakes that misrepresent political candidates during election season. AB 2839, meanwhile, expands the time period around elections in which individuals are prohibited from knowingly sharing deepfakes and other AI-generated disinformation. And AB 2355 requires campaigns to disclose any use of AI-generated or AI-manipulated ad content. Tuesday's news is just as notable for what it didn't include: SB 1047, which would impose a basic set of safety and reporting requirements on companies developing large "frontier" models. The bill intends to get the state more involved in ensuring that AI companies don't create unsafe models that could cause or enable catastrophic harm (for example, the creation of a bioweapon).