← Global AI Laws & Governance Research Library
291, Statutes of 2024
California AI Transparency Act
California AI Transparency Act: SB 942
Prepared by Shubhank Suman · Last reviewed
Current and operative. (Legislative Information)
- Legal character
- AI statute / consumer-protection legislation
- Region
- North America
- Effective/operative
- 1 January 2026
What it covers
SB 942 is specifically focused on transparency of widely used generative-AI systems.
It applies to a defined "covered provider", meaning a person creating/coding/producing a GenAI system with more than one million monthly visitors or users that is publicly accessible in California. (Legislative Information)
AI, privacy and cybersecurity relevance
- AI: Very High
- Privacy: High
- Cyber: High
AI
Very High
This is directly an AI law.
It establishes two principal mechanisms:
Privacy
High
A particularly important privacy safeguard is §22757.2(c).
The detection tool generally may not collect or retain users' personal information, subject to the statutory feedback exception, and may not retain personal provenance data from submitted content. (Legislative Information)
Cybersecurity
Moderate/High
The detection tool can impose reasonable access limitations to prevent or respond to demonstrated risks to the security or integrity of the GenAI system. (Legislative Information)
Current validity
CURRENT: operative from 1 January 2026
Do not confuse SB 942 with California's separate CCPA/CPRA privacy framework.
Read first
§22757.1 → §22757.2 → §22757.3 → §22757.4 → §22757.6.
Provisions / sections covered
1. AI detection tool
Section 22757.2
A covered provider must make available, at no cost, an AI-detection tool that:
- determines whether image/video/audio content was created or altered by its GenAI system
- outputs detected system-provenance data
- does not output personal provenance data
- is publicly accessible, subject to specified security limitations
- supports uploads/URLs
- provides an API.
(Legislative Information)
2. Manifest + latent disclosures
Section 22757.3
Covered providers must provide users an option for a manifest disclosure identifying AI-generated content.
They must also include a latent disclosure containing, to the extent technically feasible and reasonable:
- provider name
- GenAI system name/version
- creation/modification date/time
- unique identifier.
(Legislative Information)
Penalty
§22757.4: \$5,000 per violation for covered providers, with each day of violation treated as a separate violation; specified remedies also apply to third-party licensees. (Legislative Information)
Subject-matter tags
- Retention
- Enforcement and penalties
- Generative AI
- Transparency
- Deepfakes and synthetic media
Subject-matter tags describe what the indexed text discusses. They are not legal conclusions.
Document page in the Knowledge Base - full text or PDF where it is available for this record.
This library locates primary and official sources. It does not interpret the law and it is not legal advice.