A landmark state law written by Bay Area lawmakers aimed at helping people identify content that’s been generated by artificial intelligence will go into effect Saturday.
The law requires AI companies to ensure that their images and videos contain embedded, difficult-to-remove data about how the image was made — often referred to as “provenance.”
Starting Aug. 2, anyone will be able to put an image, video or audio file into a content verifier, like one from the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity, and determine whether or not it is AI-generated, state Sen. Josh Becker, D-Menlo Park, told KQED.
“While AI has some benefits, we’ve seen AI content used for election misinformation for scams and abusive deepfakes,” Becker said.
The new law Becker co-authored along with Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, and Rick Chavez Zbur, D-Los Angeles, will make it easier for everyday people to see what’s real and what’s fabricated.
The next phase kicks in on Jan. 1, 2027, and will require large online platforms to give users a way to view that previously stored information and figure out whether or not the content that they’re seeing is AI-generated.
By 2028, phones and cameras produced in California will be required to store this provenance information as soon as an image is captured.
The law — which originally passed in 2024 — has taken nearly three years to go into effect. According to Becker, figuring out how to operationalize these policies can often be a barrier to regulation.
Becker said that the lawmakers coordinated closely with the European Union throughout the process. The new law will go into effect on the same day as the European Union’s new AI Act.
While this law will immediately impact generative AI companies, experts in the space are keeping an eye on the requirements for online platforms and believe that, if enforced, it “will no doubt have a larger effect on our information economy,” Stephen Sharp Queener, academic researcher with Starling Lab, wrote in a post on Substack. Becker will hold a press conference in Sacramento on Aug. 3 to share more details about the new legislation.