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California SB 942: AI Transparency Act
CA-SB-942 · US · binding regulation
Source: https://policywindow.org/wiki/ca-sb-942
Generated 2026-06-18T02:04:57 UTC
Summary
SB 942 (the 'California AI Transparency Act'), Chapter 291, Statutes of 2024, adds §§ 22757–22757.4 to the California Business and Professions Code — a generative-AI provenance-and-disclosure law regulating 'covered providers' (a person that produces a publicly-accessible GenAI system with over 1,000,000 monthly visitors or users). Covered providers must: make available a free, public AI-detection tool (§ 22757.2(a)); offer users the option of a human-perceptible 'manifest' disclosure marking content as AI-generated (§ 22757.3(a)); and embed a machine-readable 'latent' disclosure in AI-generated image/video/audio content conveying provenance metadata — provider name, GenAI system name and version, creation/alteration time, and a unique identifier (§ 22757.3(b)). AB 853 (Chapter 674, Statutes of 2025) amended the act — most importantly DEFERRING the operative date from Jan. 1, 2026 to Aug. 2, 2026 — and added phased duties for 'large online platforms' and 'GenAI hosting platforms' that make model weights/source code available for download (§§ 22757.3.1–.3.2, operative Jan. 1, 2027) and 'capture device manufacturers' (§ 22757.3.3, operative Jan. 1, 2028). Enforcement is government-only: a $5,000-per-violation civil penalty in an action by the Attorney General, a city attorney, or a county counsel (§ 22757.4) — NO private right of action, distinct from SB 243's private action (§ 22605). Status adopted_not_in_force: enacted, but the covered-provider duties are not operative until Aug. 2, 2026.
At a glance
- Adopted
- 2024-09-19
- Effective
- 2026-08-02
- Status
- adopted not in force
- Primary source
- California AI Transparency Act, SB 942, Cal. Stats. 2024, ch. 291; Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §§ 22757–22757.4 (added by SB 942, approved by Governor Sept. 19, 2024), as amended by AB 853, Cal. Stats. 2025, ch. 674 (approved Oct. 13, 2025) — operative date deferred to Aug. 2, 2026, and §§ 22757.3.1–22757.3.3 added
- Source URL
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB942
How to cite this article
APA
Policy Window. (2024). California SB 942: AI Transparency Act [Wiki article — Instrument]. https://policywindow.org/wiki/ca-sb-942
Chicago
Policy Window. 2024. "California SB 942: AI Transparency Act." Wiki article (Instrument). https://policywindow.org/wiki/ca-sb-942.
Harvard
Policy Window (2024) 'California SB 942: AI Transparency Act', Wiki article — Instrument, available at: https://policywindow.org/wiki/ca-sb-942.
OSCOLA
Policy Window, 'California SB 942: AI Transparency Act' (Wiki article — Instrument, 2024) <https://policywindow.org/wiki/ca-sb-942> accessed [date].
BibTeX
@misc{policywindow-ca-sb-942,
title = {California SB 942: AI Transparency Act},
author = {Policy Window},
year = {2024},
howpublished = {California AI Transparency Act, SB 942, Cal. Stats. 2024, ch. 291; Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §§ 22757–22757.4 (added by SB 942, approved by Governor Sept. 19, 2024), as amended by AB 853, Cal. Stats. 2025, ch. 674 (approved Oct. 13, 2025) — operative date deferred to Aug. 2, 2026, and §§ 22757.3.1–22757.3.3 added},
url = {https://policywindow.org/wiki/ca-sb-942},
note = {Primary source: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB942}
}