Fiscal Summary

NOT SIGNIFICANT

Bill Summary

This bill authorizes an individual whose appearance, action, or speech is altered through the use of synthetic media in a public communication that is knowingly distributed publicly with the intent to malign, slander, defame, or otherwise intentionally mislead the public and damage the reputation of the individual to seek injunctive relief and other general and special damages in accordance with this bill against the individual or entity that published the synthetic media. A court may award a prevailing plaintiff reasonable attorneys' fees and costs.

As used in this bill, "synthetic media" means an image, audio recording, or video recording of an individual's appearance, speech, or conduct that has been intentionally manipulated with the use of artificial intelligence or other digital technology in a manner to create a realistic but false image, audio, or video that produces the following:

(1) A depiction that to a reasonable individual is of a real individual in appearance, action, or speech that did not actually occur in reality; and

(2) A fundamentally different understanding or impression of the appearance, action, or speech than a reasonable person would have from the unaltered, original version of the image, audio recording, or video recording.

This bill provides that it is an affirmative defense for any action brought under this bill that the publication containing synthetic media includes a disclosure stating, "This (image/video/audio) has been manipulated with the use of artificial intelligence or another digital technology and is not an accurate representation of the (individual/event) depicted," in the following manner:

(1) For visual media, the text of the disclosure must appear in size easily readable by the average viewer and no smaller than the largest font size of other text appearing in the visual media. If the visual media does not include any other text, the disclosure must appear in a size that is easily readable by the average viewer. For visual media that is a video, the disclosure must appear for the duration of the video; or

(2) If the media consists of audio only, the disclosure must be read in a clearly spoken manner and in a pitch that can be easily heard by the average listener, at the beginning of the audio, at the end of the audio, and, if the audio is greater than two minutes in length, interspersed within the audio at intervals of not more than two minutes each.

Present law provides that unfair or deceptive acts or practices affecting the conduct of any trade or commerce constitute unlawful acts or practices and are Class B misdemeanors. This bill provides that altering and disseminating to the public an image, audio recording, or video recording that has been manipulated with synthetic media is such an unfair or deceptive act or practice affecting the conduct of any trade or commerce and is declared unlawful.