The California legislature wrapped up its final week in session on Saturday, approving several bills focused on banning deepfakes and regulating artificial intelligence (AI) in the state.
One key law passed is the “Defending Democracy from Deepfake Deception Act of 2024.” This bill mandates that “large online platforms”—defined as any public-facing internet website, web application, or digital application, including social media platforms—block the posting of “materially deceptive content” related to elections in California during specified periods around an election.
The period set by the bill is from 120 days before an election until 60 days after. It also requires political campaigns to disclose if their ads use AI-altered materials. The bill was approved by the Assembly on August 28 and the Senate on August 27.
The legislation specifically targets content deemed “deceptive” if it portrays a candidate or election official as saying or doing something they did not, in a way that could harm their reputation or undermine confidence in election outcomes. It also covers similar portrayals of elected officials that could falsely affect election confidence.
Another bill that passed is SB 942, the “California AI Transparency Act.” This bill requires any “covered provider”—defined as a person or entity that creates or produces a generative AI system with over 1,000,000 monthly visitors—to provide an “AI detection tool” that enables users to verify when content was created or modified by the AI system. The bill also mandates that AI-generated content be clearly labeled as such. This legislation passed the Assembly on August 28 and the Senate on August 29.
A third bill, the “Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act” (SB 1047), sets safety standards for training AI systems. It requires developers to have the capability to enact a full shutdown and to create a written safety and security protocol to prevent their AI models or derivatives from posing unreasonable risks. The bill also specifies a testing protocol to assess potential risks. This bill also passed the Assembly on August 28 and the Senate on August 29.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has until September 30 to either sign or veto these bills.
