On January 3, 2024, Assembly Bill 216B for an act to amend the general business law, in relation to requiring advertisements to disclose the use of synthetic media was referred to the Assembly Consumer Affairs and Protection Committee.

What are the main provisions of the bill?

In particular, the bill would require businesses to, among other things, disclose the presence of synthetic media in their advertisements, where such business knows or should have known. Additionally, the bill provides that if synthetic media has been used in any commercial advertisement to create a likeness that depicts a natural person engaged in any action or expression in which the natural person did not actually engage, such advertisement shall include a disclaimer that clearly and conspicuously states that such likeness featured in such advertisement is synthetic, does not depict a natural person, and is generated to create a human likeness.

The bill defines 'synthetic media' as any human voice, photograph, image, video, or other human likeness created, reproduced, or modified by a computer, using generative artificial intelligence (AI) or a software algorithm, to produce or reproduce a human likeness.

Furthermore, the bill would introduce penalties for violations of the above provisions, which can be a civil penalty of $1,000 for a first violation, and $5,000 for any subsequent violation.

You can read the bill and track its progress here.