California Governor Gavin Newsom currently has 38 AI-related bills under consideration, including the highly controversial SB 1047, which the state legislature has sent to his desk for final approval. These bills seek to address some of the most pressing issues in AI, from whether futuristic AI systems pose an existential risk to deepfake nudes from AI image generators to Hollywood studios creating AI clones of dead actors.
“Home to many of the world’s leading AI companies, California is committed to leveraging these innovative technologies to solve pressing challenges while also studying the risks they pose,” Newsom’s office said in a news release.
So far, Governor Newsom has signed eight bills, some of which are the most sweeping AI legislation in the country to date.
Deepfake nude
Newsom signed two bills into law Thursday to address the creation and spread of deepfake nudes. SB 926 criminalizes the practice, making it illegal to blackmail someone with an AI-generated nude image of themselves.
SB 981, which became law Thursday, would require social media platforms to set up a channel where users can report deepfake nudes of themselves. The platforms would then be required to temporarily block the content while they investigate, and if confirmed, permanently remove it.
Watermark
Also on Thursday, Newsom signed legislation to help the public identify AI-generated content. SB 942 would require widely used generative AI systems to disclose that their content was generated by AI in the data they provide. For example, all images generated by OpenAI’s Dall-E would now need a small tag in their metadata indicating that they were generated by AI.
Many AI companies are already taking this approach, and there are several free tools that help people read this source data and detect AI-generated content.
Election Deepfake
Earlier this week, California’s governor signed three bills aimed at 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 and create a channel for reporting such content. Candidates and elected officials can seek injunctive relief if large online platforms fail to comply with the law.
Another law, AB 2839, targets social media users who post or repost AI deepfakes that could deceive voters about upcoming elections. The law took effect immediately on Tuesday, and Newsom suggested that Elon Musk could be at risk of violating it.
AI-generated political ads now require full disclosure under a new California law, AB 2355. That means Trump may no longer be able to stop Taylor Swift from posting an AI deepfake of himself on Truth Social (she endorsed Kamala Harris). The FCC has proposed similar disclosure requirements at the national level, and has already made robocalls using AI-generated voices illegal.
Actors and AI
The two laws Newsom signed Tuesday, which were pushed by SAG-AFTRA, the nation’s largest union of film and television actors, set new standards for California’s media industry. AB 2602 requires studios to get permission from actors before using AI-generated voices or likenesses.
Meanwhile, AB 1836 prohibits studios from making digital copies of deceased entertainers without the consent of their estates (legally licensed copies have been used in recent “Alien” and “Star Wars” films, as well as other films).
What’s left?
Gov. Newsom has 30 AI-related bills left to decide on by the end of September. During a conversation with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff at the 2024 Dreamforce conference on Tuesday, Newsom may have taken a leaf out of SB 1047, and how he feels about regulating the AI industry more broadly.
“There’s one bill that’s been a little bit overblown in terms of public discourse and awareness, and that’s SB 1047,” Newsom said Tuesday onstage. “What are the provable risks of 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 issue.”
Check back here for updates on AI laws signed and unsigned by the California governor.
