California businesses using AI-generated people, voices, or digital spokespersons in advertising will soon face a new disclosure requirement. Under Senate Bill 1050, an advertisement that prominently features an AI-generated “synthetic performer” must clearly and conspicuously disclose that the performer is synthetic.
Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 1050 on September 16, 2026, and the law takes effect January 1, 2027. Importantly, a violation is treated as false advertising under California law, potentially exposing businesses to civil penalties, injunctive relief, and private litigation.
For companies already using, or planning to use, AI-generated voiceovers, virtual spokespersons, digital influencers, or other synthetic performers to market products or services to California consumers, the compliance window is short. Businesses should review their advertising now and ensure that any required disclosures are prominent, clear, and incorporated into campaigns before the law takes effect.
The broader takeaway is significant: California is making clear that the use of artificial intelligence in advertising does not lessen a company’s obligation to communicate transparently with consumers. As AI-generated marketing becomes more common, businesses that fail to disclose when consumers are interacting with or viewing synthetic performers may face the same types of false-advertising claims traditionally associated with misleading product representations.
What Is SB 1050?
SB 1050 adds Section 17610 to California’s Business and Professions Code. It was authored by Senator Angelique Ashby and sponsored by SAG-AFTRA, and Governor Newsom signed it at SAG-AFTRA’s Los Angeles headquarters.
California is the second state to regulate this. New York enacted a similar synthetic performer disclosure law that took effect June 9, 2026. California’s version is broader in several meaningful ways, which we cover below.
The law does not prohibit using AI in advertising. It requires you to say that you did.
When Does SB 1050 Take Effect?
January 1, 2027.
Ads created before that date are not grandfathered. If a campaign is still running on January 1, 2027 and it prominently features a synthetic performer without a disclosure, it is a violation from that day forward.
What Is a “Synthetic Performer” Under California Law?
The statute defines it as a digital figure, voice, or representation created in whole or in part using generative artificial intelligence that creates the realistic impression of the audio, audiovisual, or visual performance of a human performer who is not recognizable as any identifiable natural person.
Two halves of that definition do the work:
- It must look or sound like a real human performance. A cartoon mascot or an obviously stylized animation is not creating the realistic impression of a human performer.
- It must not be a recognizable real person. If AI is used to recreate an identifiable individual, that is a different legal problem. California’s right of publicity statute, Civil Code Section 3344, already governs the unauthorized use of a real person’s likeness or voice.
So SB 1050 targets the middle category: realistic human figures and voices that do not belong to anyone.
Does SB 1050 Apply to My Business?
Almost certainly, if you advertise to California consumers and use generative AI in your creative.
The law contains no revenue threshold, no employee count, and no carve-out for small businesses. It applies to any person who creates and causes an advertisement to be published in an advertising medium.
“Advertisement” is defined broadly: any audio, video, or audiovisual message, statement, recording, digital communication, or other representation disseminated by any means, including through online platforms, that is intended or reasonably expected to induce the purchase of goods or services.
That reaches social media ads, YouTube pre-roll, streaming and connected TV spots, radio, podcast reads, digital display with audio or video, and website video.
The statute is triggered by dissemination of an advertisement in California. On its face, that means a business headquartered elsewhere can still be covered if California consumers see the ad. How aggressively that gets enforced against out-of-state advertisers is one of the real open questions in the law.
When Is a Synthetic Performer “Prominently” Included?
This is the threshold that decides whether you need a disclosure at all. Under SB 1050, a synthetic performer is prominently included when it:
- Appears in the foreground demonstrating or illustrating the product or service
- Provides or voices the on-camera or off-camera narration or commercial message
- Illustrates or reacts to the narration or commercial message
Notice how much that covers. An AI voiceover reading your script triggers item two even though no figure ever appears on screen. An AI-generated person nodding along in the background while a human narrates may trigger item three.
A synthetic figure buried in a crowd scene, with no role in the message, is the clearest case for no disclosure. Most other uses are closer calls.
What Must the Disclosure Say?
The wording must be substantially similar to one of two statutory phrases:
- “This performance features a synthetic performer”
- “No human performer is depicted”
Unlike New York’s law, California prescribes the language. Inventing your own phrasing is a risk unless it closely tracks one of these.
The disclosure must also be clear and conspicuous, which the statute defines as difficult to miss, easily understandable, and presented in a manner that a reasonable consumer would notice, read, and comprehend, accounting for the medium, format, and context of the ad.
In practice that means:
- The disclosure appears in close proximity to the synthetic performer within the ad
- It is displayed or spoken for long enough that a reasonable consumer can actually absorb it
- It is adapted to the format, so an audio-only ad needs a spoken disclosure, not a line of text on a webpage somewhere
A two-frame flash of six-point gray type at the end of a spot will not survive this standard.
Does SB 1050 Apply to AI Voiceovers?
Yes. This is one of the clearest differences from New York, which expressly exempts audio-only advertisements. California covers them.
If you use a generative AI voice to narrate a radio spot, a podcast ad, or the audio track of a video, and that voice delivers the commercial message, you are in scope and you need a spoken disclosure.
Does It Apply to AI-Generated Photos and Static Images?
This is genuinely unsettled, and anyone telling you otherwise is guessing.
The definition of synthetic performer includes the “visual performance” of a human performer, which arguably reaches a still image of an AI-generated model. But the definition of advertisement is framed around audio, video, and audiovisual messages, and most early analysis has focused on moving and audio content.
Until there is guidance or a first wave of enforcement, the conservative position for a business running AI-generated human models in static display or print creative is to disclose. The cost of a line of copy is near zero. The cost of being a test case is not.
What If I Used AI to Touch Up a Real Person?
Light editing of a real performer, color correction, retouching, routine post-production, carries low risk. The person is still recognizable as an identifiable natural person, so they fall outside the synthetic performer definition.
The risk rises as the AI alteration deepens. If you use AI to substantially alter a real actor’s voice or appearance to the point where they are arguably no longer recognizable as a specific person, you land in the gap between the right of publicity statute and SB 1050. That gray zone is where the first demand letters are likely to go.
Practical guidance: document what was AI-generated and what was captured. If a dispute arises, the production record is your evidence.
What Is Exempt From SB 1050?
Three meaningful exclusions:
Expressive works. Advertisements and promotional material for motion pictures, television programs, streaming content, documentaries, video games, and similar works are exempt, provided the synthetic performer is used in the ad consistently with how it is used in the underlying work. A trailer for a film featuring an AI character is fine. Inventing a synthetic spokesperson for the marketing campaign who never appears in the film likely is not.
Language translation and accessibility. If generative AI is used solely to translate a human performer’s delivery or provide accessibility features, the law does not apply.
The content of your advertising generally. The statute explicitly does not restrict the creation, distribution, or exhibition of synthetic content, and does not regulate the expressive content of ads beyond requiring the disclosure.
What Are the Penalties for Violating SB 1050?
A violation of SB 1050 is a violation of California’s false advertising law, Business and Professions Code Section 17500, and is enforceable under the Unfair Competition Law, Section 17200 and following.
That framework carries real consequences:
- Civil penalties
- Injunctive relief
- Restitution and disgorgement of profits
- Criminal exposure, since Section 17500 violations can be charged as a misdemeanor
- A prohibition on continuing to run the ad once it has been found in violation
The Attorney General, district attorneys, county counsel, and in some cases city attorneys and prosecutors can bring enforcement actions.
Can a Private Party Sue Me Under SB 1050?
Yes, and this is the provision most likely to generate volume.
New York’s law has no private right of action. California’s does, because routing violations through the false advertising and unfair competition statutes opens the door to suits by plaintiffs who suffered injury in fact and lost money or property as a result. Claims under the Consumers Legal Remedies Act may also be available.
California also imposes no actual-knowledge requirement. Under New York’s law, an advertiser must know a synthetic performer was used. Under SB 1050, not knowing that your agency or a freelancer used an AI voice tool is not a defense.
That combination, strict liability plus a private right of action plus a statute plaintiffs’ firms already know how to use, is why practitioners expect litigation shortly after the effective date.
Do Publishers and Platforms Have Obligations Too?
Yes, but a narrower one.
An “advertising medium” includes broadcast stations, cable operators, multichannel video programming distributors, online platforms, streaming services, digital advertising networks, and publishers that distribute advertising to California consumers. Entities that lack the technical ability to remove or disable an ad are excluded.
Once a court has issued an order finding that a specific advertisement violates the law, the advertising medium must stop disseminating it as soon as commercially reasonable and technically feasible. The duty attaches after service of a court order identifying the ad, not on first notice from a complaining party.
For anyone selling ad inventory, the practical response is contractual: require advertisers to warrant that no synthetic performer is used or that any use is disclosed in compliance with SB 1050, and add indemnification for breaches.
How Is SB 1050 Different From New York’s Law?
| California SB 1050 | New York GBL § 396-b | |
| Effective | January 1, 2027 | June 9, 2026 |
| Audio-only ads | Covered | Expressly exempt |
| Trigger | Only when “prominently” featured | Any inclusion |
| Disclosure wording | Prescribed by statute | Not prescribed |
| Knowledge required | No | Actual knowledge required |
| Private right of action | Yes | No |
| Definition scope | Generative AI | Broader, includes software algorithms |
National advertisers should build to the stricter standard rather than maintaining two creative pipelines.
What Should My Business Do Before January 1, 2027?
- Inventory your creative. Identify every active and planned ad that used generative AI to produce a human figure or voice. Include work produced by outside agencies, freelancers, and anything generated inside a platform’s own ad tools.
- Flag the near-misses. AI voiceovers, AI-generated models in the foreground, synthetic figures reacting to a narrator. These are the ones people overlook because no obvious “AI spokesperson” appears.
- Write your standard disclosures now. One text version for video, one spoken version for audio. Use language substantially similar to the statutory phrasing.
- Build disclosure into the approval workflow. A checkbox at final creative review asking whether any synthetic performer appears, and if so, whether the disclosure is present and conspicuous.
- Fix your vendor contracts. Agencies, production companies, and freelancers should warrant whether AI was used and indemnify you if they are wrong. If you sell ad space, push the same obligation the other direction.
- Keep production records. Document what was AI-generated versus captured. In a dispute over whether a performer is recognizable as a real person, that record is the evidence.
- Audit campaigns that will still be live on January 1. Anything running into the new year needs to be compliant before it does.
Quick Answers
- What is California SB 1050? A law requiring advertisers to clearly disclose when an advertisement prominently features an AI-generated synthetic performer. It was signed September 16, 2026 and adds Section 17610 to the Business and Professions Code.
- When does SB 1050 take effect? January 1, 2027. Ads created earlier are not exempt if they are still running on that date.
- What is a synthetic performer? A digital figure, voice, or representation created in whole or in part with generative AI that gives the realistic impression of a human performance and is not recognizable as any identifiable real person.
- What disclosure does SB 1050 require? Wording substantially similar to “this performance features a synthetic performer” or “no human performer is depicted,” presented clearly and conspicuously near the synthetic performer and long enough for a consumer to understand it.
- Does SB 1050 apply to small businesses? Yes. There is no size, revenue, or ad-spend threshold. It applies to anyone advertising to California consumers.
- Does SB 1050 cover AI voiceovers? Yes. California covers audio-only advertisements, unlike New York’s law.
- What are the penalties for violating SB 1050? A violation is treated as false advertising under Business and Professions Code Section 17500, carrying civil penalties, injunctions, restitution, potential misdemeanor exposure, and a requirement to pull the noncompliant ad.
- Can I be sued personally by a consumer? Yes. Unlike New York’s law, California’s framework allows private actions by plaintiffs who lost money or property, and there is no actual-knowledge defense.
Sources
- California Senate Bill 1050 (2025-2026 Session), full text, California Legislative Information
- Office of Governor Gavin Newsom, signing announcement, September 16, 2026
- California Business and Professions Code sections 17500 and 17200
- California Attorney General, legal advisories on the application of California law to AI, January 2025
- SAG-AFTRA, statement on SB 1050 signing, September 2026
- New York General Business Law section 396-b (S8420A/A8887B), effective June 9, 2026
Talk to a California Advertising and Consumer Protection Attorney
Malk & Pogo Law Group advises businesses and represents consumers in false advertising and unfair competition matters throughout California, from our office in Valley Village.
SB 1050 does not create a new enforcement agency or a new penalty scheme. It plugs directly into Business and Professions Code sections 17500 and 17200, the same statutes that already govern deceptive advertising claims in this state. That is the body of law we work in.
If you are a business trying to get your creative pipeline compliant before January 1, or you believe you were misled by an advertisement, call 818.484.5204 or contact us for a consultation.
Reviewed by: Valter Malkhasyan, Partner, Malk & Pogo Law Group Published: October 7, 2026.
Disclaimer: This article provides general information about California law and is not legal advice. SB 1050 contains unsettled provisions that will be shaped by enforcement activity and litigation. For advice about your specific advertising, speak with a licensed California attorney.