Generates images with AI, in California

Cal. Elec. Code Section 20010 · Read the law's page

• Disclose that the media has been manipulated when you distribute materially deceptive audio or visual election media depicting a candidate within 60 days of an election
• The prohibition reaches distribution with actual malice, intending to injure the candidate's reputation or deceive a voter
• This statute was not a party to the litigation that reached AB 2839 and AB 2655, and it runs to 1 January 2031

Cal. Civ. Code section 1798.81.5, as amended by AB 825 (2021, Ch. 527) · Read the law's page

• This binds a business that owns, licenses, or maintains personal information about a California resident, and by contract extends the same duty to a nonaffiliated third party the business discloses that information to; it exempts a health care provider, plan, or contractor already regulated by the Confidentiality of Medical Information Act, a financial institution subject to the California Financial Information Privacy Act, a covered entity governed by the federal HIPAA medical privacy and security rules, and a business already subject to state or federal law providing greater protection on the same subject, deemed compliant with this duty instead.
• Implement and maintain reasonable security procedures and practices appropriate to the nature of the personal information you own, license, or maintain, to protect it from unauthorized access, destruction, use, modification, or disclosure.
• Covered personal information reaches a name paired with a Social Security, driver's license, state ID, passport, military ID, or tax ID number, a financial account or payment card number with its access code, medical or health insurance information, unique biometric data used to authenticate a person, or genetic data, when either the name or the data element is not encrypted or redacted; it also reaches a username or email address paired with a password or security question that unlocks an online account.
• A customer injured by a violation of this duty may bring a civil action for damages under Civil Code section 1798.84(b); where the violation is a breach of nonencrypted or nonredacted personal information, the CCPA/CPRA's own statutory-damages private right of action, Civil Code section 1798.150, is a separate and further remedy, researched as this jurisdiction's privacy row.

Cal. Elec. Code Section 20012 · Read the law's page

• Enforcement is enjoined on First Amendment grounds, with the State's appeal pending, so read this as context rather than a live duty
• As enacted it barred knowingly distributing materially deceptive AI-generated election media, with actual malice, inside specified windows around an election
• It required a conspicuous manipulation disclaimer for satire or parody content to qualify for that exemption

Cal. Civ. Code Section 3344.1 (AB 1836, Ch. 258, Stats. 2024) · Read the law's page

• Do not 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 prior consent from the person or persons who hold the right of consent
• Do not use a deceased personality's name, voice, signature, photograph, or likeness on or in products, merchandise, or goods, or for advertising or selling, or soliciting purchases of, products, merchandise, goods, or services, without prior consent from the person or persons who hold the right of consent
• A digital replica used in connection with news, public affairs, or sports broadcasts or accounts, for comment, criticism, scholarship, satire, or parody, in a documentary or in a historical or biographical manner (unless the use is intended to create, and does create, the false impression that the work is an authentic recording in which the individual participated), where the use is fleeting or incidental, or in an advertisement or commercial announcement for such a work, needs no consent
• The owners and employees of a medium used for advertising are not liable for an advertisement or solicitation they publish or disseminate in violation of the section unless it is established that they knew of the unauthorized use

Cal. Lab. Code Section 927 (AB 2602, Ch. 259, Stats. 2024) · Read the law's page

• To keep enforceable a provision that allows a digital replica of an individual's voice or likeness to be created and used in place of work the individual would otherwise have performed in person, for a new performance fixed on or after January 1, 2025, include a reasonably specific description of the intended uses of the digital replica, unless the uses are consistent with the terms of the contract and the fundamental character of the photography or soundtrack as recorded or performed
• Alternatively, have the individual represented, in licensing the digital replica rights, by legal counsel who negotiated on the individual's behalf with the commercial terms stated clearly and conspicuously in a writing signed or initialed by the individual, or by a labor union whose collective bargaining agreement expressly addresses uses of digital replicas

Cal. Penal Code Sections 311.1, 311.2 and 311.11 (AB 1831, Ch. 926, and SB 1381, Ch. 929, Stats. 2024) · Read the law's page

• Do not knowingly possess or control matter that incorporates digitally altered or artificial-intelligence-generated matter, knowing that the matter is obscene and depicts what appears to be a person under 18 years of age engaging in or simulating sexual conduct (Penal Code Section 311.11(a)(2)).
• Do not knowingly possess or control matter that incorporates digitally altered or artificial-intelligence-generated matter, the production of which involves the use of a person under 18 years of age, knowing that it depicts a person under 18 years of age engaging in or simulating sexual conduct; the matter need not be obscene, and the paragraph does not apply to drawings, figurines or statues (Section 311.11(a)(1) and (d)).
• Do not, in California, possess, prepare, publish, produce, develop, duplicate or print digitally altered or artificial-intelligence-generated matter with intent to distribute or exhibit it, and do not distribute or exhibit obscene matter, knowing that it depicts a person under 18 years of age or contains digitally altered or artificial-intelligence-generated data depicting what appears to be a person under 18 years of age engaging in or simulating sexual conduct (Section 311.1(a)).
• Do not distribute or exhibit obscene matter depicting a person under 18 years of age, or an AI-generated or digitally altered depiction of what appears to be one, for commercial consideration, and do not possess such matter with intent to distribute it for commercial consideration (Section 311.2(b)); do not distribute or exhibit it to, or exchange it with, a person under 18 years of age (Section 311.2(d)).
• The prohibitions in Sections 311.1 and 311.2 do not apply to the activities of law enforcement and prosecuting agencies in investigating and prosecuting criminal offenses, to legitimate medical, scientific or educational activities, or to lawful conduct between spouses (Sections 311.1(b) and 311.2(e)).

AB 316 (Ch. 672, Stats. 2025), Cal. Civ. Code Section 1714.46 · Read the law's page

• Do not defend a claim that artificial intelligence you developed, modified, or used caused harm to the plaintiff by arguing that the artificial intelligence autonomously caused the harm; the defense is unavailable (Civil Code Section 1714.46(b)).
• You may still present any other affirmative defense, including evidence relevant to causation or foreseeability, and evidence relevant to the comparative fault of any other person or entity (Section 1714.46(c)).

Cal. Bus. and Prof. Code Sections 22601 to 22606 · Read the law's page

• If a reasonable person interacting with your companion chatbot could be misled into believing they are talking to a human, issue a clear and conspicuous notification that the chatbot is artificially generated and not human
• Do not let a companion chatbot on your platform engage with users unless you maintain, and publish on your website, a protocol for preventing it from producing suicidal ideation, suicide, or self-harm content, including a notification referring the user to a crisis hotline or crisis text line
• For a user you know is a minor, disclose that they are interacting with artificial intelligence, and provide a clear and conspicuous break reminder by default at least every three hours during continuing interactions (Section 22602(c)(1) and (2), deleted by SB 1119 effective January 1, 2027)
• For a user you know is a minor, take reasonable measures to prevent your companion chatbot from producing visual sexually explicit material or directly telling the minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct (Section 22602(c)(3), deleted by SB 1119 effective January 1, 2027)
• Disclose, wherever a user can access your companion chatbot platform, that companion chatbots may not be suitable for some minors (Section 22604)
• Beginning 1 July 2027, report annually to the Office of Suicide Prevention on the crisis-referral notifications you issued and the protocols you have in place, without including user identifiers or personal information
• A companion chatbot used only for customer service, internal business purposes, or as a limited video-game feature, or a stand-alone voice-command consumer device that does not sustain a relationship across interactions, falls outside this chapter

Cal. Bus. and Prof. Code Sections 22757.10 to 22757.16 · Read the law's page

• If you are a large frontier developer (a frontier developer whose group had annual gross revenues over $500,000,000 in the prior calendar year), write, implement and publish on your website a frontier AI framework describing how you define and assess catastrophic-risk thresholds for your frontier models and apply mitigations, and review that framework at least once a year
• If you are a large frontier developer, make your published frontier AI framework describe your cybersecurity practices to secure unreleased model weights from unauthorized modification or transfer by internal or external parties (Section 22757.12(a)(7))
• Before or when you deploy a new or substantially modified frontier model, publish a transparency report giving the model's release date, supported languages, output modalities, intended uses, and any generally applicable restrictions
• If you are a large frontier developer, add to that transparency report summaries of your catastrophic-risk assessments, their results, and the extent of any third-party evaluator involvement
• If you are a large frontier developer, transmit summaries of catastrophic-risk assessments from your frontier models' internal use to the California Office of Emergency Services on a quarterly or agreed schedule
• If you are a frontier developer, report a critical safety incident pertaining to one or more of your frontier models to the Office of Emergency Services within 15 days of discovering it; if you discover information about the incident after filing, you may file an amended report (Section 22757.13(c))
• If you are a frontier developer, disclose a critical safety incident that poses an imminent risk of death or serious physical injury within 24 hours of discovering that it does so, to an authority, including any law enforcement agency or public safety agency with jurisdiction, that is appropriate based on the nature of the incident and as required by law (Section 22757.13(c)(2))
• Do not make a materially false or misleading statement about catastrophic risk from your frontier models, or, if you are a large frontier developer, about your compliance with your own frontier AI framework
• Do not retaliate against a covered employee who discloses, in good faith and with reasonable cause, that your activities pose a catastrophic-risk danger to public health or safety or that you violated this Act; if you are a large frontier developer, also provide an internal channel for anonymous disclosure of that kind

Cal. Civ. Code Section 1708.86 (AB 621, Ch. 673, Stats. 2025) · Read the law's page

• Do not create and intentionally disclose, or intentionally disclose, digitized sexually explicit material (an image, video or other visual or audiovisual work created or substantially altered through digitization that shows a depicted individual in the nude or appearing to engage in, or being subjected to, sexual conduct) if you know, or reasonably should know, that the person depicted did not consent or was a minor when the material was created
• Do not knowingly facilitate, or recklessly aid or abet, another person's creation and intentional disclosure of digitized sexually explicit material
• If you own, operate or control a deepfake pornography service, an internet website, mobile application or other service whose primary purpose is to create digitized sexually explicit material, hold the express written consent of each person depicted: you are treated as creating and intentionally disclosing the material and are presumed to have known the person did not consent unless you produce that consent
• If you provide a service that enables the ongoing operation of a deepfake pornography service, take all necessary steps to stop providing it within 30 days of receiving evidence from a depicted individual or a public prosecutor that you are providing it, or you are presumed to be knowingly facilitating or recklessly aiding or abetting the conduct (a court may extend the 30 days for an ongoing law enforcement investigation or operation)
• Do not rely on a disclaimer in the material, or on a statement that users are prohibited from generating such material without the individual's consent, as a defense
• An internet service provider is not liable under the section for the mere transmission, routing, or provision of access to third-party content over its network, and the section does not apply to conduct protected by federal law, including Section 230 of Title 47 of the United States Code

Cal. Civ. Code Sections 3110 and 3111 · Read the law's page

• Post training-data documentation on your website before making a generative AI system publicly available to Californians, and again before any substantial modification
• Cover the datasets and their sources and owners, an approximate count and description of the data points, whether the data includes copyrighted or personal information, and whether synthetic data generation was used
• The duty reaches systems first made publicly available on or after 1 January 2022

Cal. Bus. and Prof. Code Sections 22757 to 22757.6 · Read the law's page

• Make available, at no cost to the user, a disclosure verification tool that lets a user assess whether image, video, or audio content was created or altered, other than by a minor modification, by your generative AI system and that outputs any system provenance data detected in the content
• To the extent it is technically feasible, embed in image, video, and audio content your system creates or alters a latent disclosure carrying your name, the system's name and version, the time and date, a unique identifier, and whether the system created or altered the content, and make it permanent or extraordinarily difficult to remove
• Do not collect, use, retain, sell, share, or otherwise make available personal information derived from a user of the verification tool or from content it processes beyond what is strictly necessary, and do not make access to your system or the tool depend on a user providing personal information beyond that
• If you license your system, tell the licensee its obligations under the chapter; if you know a licensee modified it so that it no longer complies, end the licensee's authorization or notify the licensee within 72 hours, and report an unresolved licensee's noncompliance to the Attorney General
• Do not falsely represent that your generative AI system is designed to primarily function as assistive technology
• If you run a large online platform, from 1 January 2027 detect provenance data in content distributed on it, show users a clear indication of whether any system provenance data or digital signature identifies the content as generated, substantially altered, or captured by a device, let users inspect that data, and, to the extent technically feasible, do not knowingly strip it
• If you manufacture a capture device that you first produce for sale in California on or after 1 January 2028, provide users the option to include in captured content a latent disclosure naming you as manufacturer, the device's name and version, and the time and date of the content's creation or alteration, and embed latent disclosures in captured content by default, to the extent technically feasible and compliant with widely adopted specifications
• Later phases add duties for GenAI hosting platforms from 1 January 2027

Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 22650 et seq. (SB 11, 2025–2026 Reg. Sess.)

• This law is enacted but does not take effect until 1 December 2026; what follows applies from that date.
• If you make available AI technology capable of creating digital replicas of real people, display a consumer warning stating that unlawful use of the technology to depict another person without prior consent may result in civil or criminal liability for the user.
• If you make available AI technology capable of creating digital replicas of real people, hyperlink that warning on the pages where users enter prompts.
• If you make available AI technology capable of creating digital replicas of real people, include that warning in your terms and conditions.

Cal. Bus. and Prof. Code Section 17610 (SB 1050, Ch. 246, Stats. 2026) · Read the law's page

• Include a clear and conspicuous disclosure in any advertisement you create and cause to be published that prominently includes a synthetic performer, a digital figure, voice, or representation made in whole or in part with generative AI that gives the realistic impression of a human performer who is not an identifiable natural person
• Use disclosure wording substantially similar to "this performance features a synthetic performer" or "no human performer is depicted"
• If you are an advertising medium served with a court order finding that an advertisement violates the chapter or enjoining its creator, remove, disable access to, or stop disseminating the advertisement in California and stop accepting payment for further dissemination

Cal. Bus. and Prof. Code Section 6068.1 (SB 574, Ch. 858, Stats. 2026) · Read the law's page

• If you are an attorney, do not delegate the practice of law to generative artificial intelligence
• If you are an attorney who uses generative AI to assist in the practice of law, do not enter confidential, personal identifying, or other nonpublic information into a generative AI system unless access to what you input is restricted to you and persons you authorize under obligations to protect its confidentiality
• Take reasonable steps to verify the accuracy of generative AI outputs, including all case and statutory citations, and to correct any erroneous or hallucinated output in any material you use
• Disclose the use of generative AI to the court for all documents you submit to the court, and consider whether to disclose its use if it is used to create content provided to the public
• Do not file a brief, pleading, motion, or other paper in any court that contains a citation you have not personally verified, including a citation provided by generative AI
• If you are an arbitrator, do not delegate any part of your decisionmaking process to any generative AI tool, and do not rely on information generated by generative AI outside the record without making appropriate disclosures to the parties beforehand and, as far as practical, allowing them to comment on its use

Cal. Civ. Code Section 3344; Cal. Penal Code Section 540 (SB 1111, Ch. 862, Stats. 2026) · Read the law's page

• Do not knowingly use another person's name, voice, signature, photograph, or likeness, including a digital replica of their voice or visual likeness, on products, merchandise, or goods, or for advertising or selling, without that person's prior consent, or the prior consent of a parent or legal guardian in the case of a minor
• Do not use a digital replica with the intent to impersonate another person where false impersonation is an element of an offense, including the offenses in Penal Code sections 528.5, 529, and 530

Cal. Gov. Code Section 8319 (SB 1159, Ch. 863, Stats. 2026) · Read the law's page

• Do not knowingly use artificial intelligence to falsely represent that a natural person appeared before, submitted information to, or otherwise engaged with a California governmental agency
• Make requests, comments, and other submissions to a California agency under the Public Records Act, the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act, the Ralph M. Brown Act, the Legislative Open Records Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, the California Coastal Act of 1976, or the California Environmental Quality Act as a natural person or a legally recognized entity, because an artificial intelligence system, autonomous agent, or robot is not a person, interested person, participant, or member of the public under those acts
• A natural person may use artificial intelligence, autonomous agents, or robots to facilitate their own engagement with a governmental agency, including through assistive technologies, provided the volume and frequency of the engagement are reasonably consistent with ordinary participation by a natural person

Cal. Gov. Code Sections 8898 to 8898.4 (SB 813, Ch. 179, Stats. 2026) · Read the law's page

• This chapter does not require you to engage an independent verification organization (IVO) or undergo a covered AI audit as a condition of developing, deploying, or operating an AI system or model in California; doing so is voluntary.
• If you want to be designated as an IVO, apply once the Government Operations Agency publishes its application requirements and designation criteria, due by January 1, 2028.
• If you are a designated IVO, submit an annual report on your standards, methodologies, governance changes, and conflicts of interest to the agency and the Legislature, starting no sooner than 12 months after your designation.
• If a court considers whether your AI system or model caused harm, an audit performed to a standard identified under this chapter is relevant to, but not conclusive of, that action; the chapter creates no safe harbor or affirmative defense.

Cal. Penal Code Sections 311.3 and 11165.1 (SB 1276, Ch. 192, Stats. 2026) · Read the law's page

• Enacted and not yet in force: from January 1, 2027, do not knowingly develop, duplicate, print, download, stream, access through electronic or digital media, or exchange any representation of information, data or image that contains or incorporates any film, filmstrip, or any digitally altered or artificial-intelligence-generated matter depicting a person under 18 years of age engaged in an act of sexual conduct, knowing that it does (Penal Code Section 311.3(a)).
• It is not necessary to prove that the matter is obscene to establish a violation (Section 311.3(b)).
• The prohibition does not apply to law enforcement and prosecution activities in investigating and prosecuting offenses, legitimate medical, scientific or educational activities, lawful conduct between spouses, an employee of a commercial film developer acting within the scope of employment, or matter that is unsolicited and received without knowledge or consent through a system you do not control (Section 311.3(d), (f) and (g)).

Cal. Gov. Code Sections 11549.80 to 11549.86 (AB 1405, Ch. 178, Stats. 2026) · Read the law's page

• This chapter binds AI auditors (anyone who assesses an AI system or model on behalf of a third party), not the developer or deployer of the AI system being assessed, unless that developer or deployer also offers covered AI audits to others.
• If you offer, sell, or conduct a covered AI audit, an audit assessing internal controls, processes, or systems implemented for an AI system or model that are necessary for compliance with California law, register with the Government Operations Agency before doing so, starting January 1, 2029.
• If you register as an AI auditor, give the agency your business name, contact information, the California laws or regulations you audit under, relevant certifications, a description of your services, and a standard operating procedure describing the standards you apply and the basis for your accuracy and reliability claims.
• If you are a registered AI auditor, update that information with the agency within 90 days of any change that materially affects its accuracy or completeness.
• If you are a registered AI auditor, do not conduct a covered AI audit of a system, process, control, assessment, or other subject matter you materially designed, developed, implemented, or operated for the auditee, and otherwise maintain independence, objectivity, and competence throughout the audit.
• If you are a registered AI auditor conducting a covered AI audit, give the auditee a report covering the audit's scope and objectives, its results and supporting documentation, each deficiency found and how it could reasonably be addressed, whether the auditee followed its own internal safety standards and protocols within the audit's scope, the audit's limitations, and a signed and dated statement that the audit met this chapter's requirements.
• If you are a registered AI auditor, retain the information you gave the auditee and the documentation behind your audit results for at least 10 years.
• If you are a registered AI auditor, display your registration number clearly and conspicuously on advertising for your audit services, and do not retaliate against an employee who reports suspected noncompliance to the Attorney General, the Labor Commissioner, or the agency.