Bill Text: CA AB2355 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Amended

California Assembly Bill 2355

Bill Title: Political advertisements: artificial intelligence.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-05-01 - From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 9. Noes 1.) (April 30). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. [AB2355 Detail]

Download: California-2023-AB2355-Amended.html

Amended IN Assembly April 18, 2024

Amended IN Assembly April 11, 2024

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 2355

Introduced by Assembly Member Wendy Carrillo

February 12, 2024

An act to add Chapter 1.5 (commencing with Section 20050) to Division 20 of the Elections Code, relating to political advertisements.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 2355, as amended, Wendy Carrillo. Political advertisements: artificial intelligence.

Existing law requires a paid political advertisement, as defined, that refers to an election or to any candidate for state or local elective office and that is contained or distributed with a newspaper to include the printed disclosure “Paid Political Advertisement,” as specified. Existing law, until January 1, 2027, prohibits a person, committee, or other entity from, except as specified, distributing, with actual malice, materially deceptive audio or visual media of a candidate for elective office with the intent to injure the candidate’s reputation or to deceive the voter into voting for or against the candidate.

This bill would require a person, committee, or other entity that creates, originally publishes, or originally distributes a qualified political advertisement to include in the advertisement a specified disclosure that the advertisement was ~~generated, in whole~~ generated or ~~substantially,~~ substantially altered using artificial intelligence, as defined. The bill would define “qualified political advertisement” to include any paid advertisement, as specified, that relates to a candidate for federal, state, or local office, any election to federal, state, or local office, or a ballot measure, that contains any image, audio, or video that is ~~generated, in whole~~ generated or ~~substantially,~~ substantially altered using artificial intelligence. The bill would specify that any image, audio, video, or other media is ~~generated, in whole~~ generated or ~~substantially,~~ substantially altered using artificial intelligence if it is entirely created using artificial intelligence and would falsely appear to a reasonable person to be authentic or materially altered by artificial intelligence such that a reasonable person would have a fundamentally different understanding of the altered media when comparing it to an unaltered version. The bill would authorize any registered voter to bring an action in superior court seeking a temporary or permanent restraining order or injunction against the publication, printing, circulation, posting, or distribution of any qualified political advertisement that violates these disclosure requirements.

Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: NO Local Program: NO

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

Chapter 1.5 (commencing with Section 20050) is added to Division 20 of the Elections Code, to read:

CHAPTER 1.5. Artificial Intelligence in Political Advertisements

20050.

(a) (1) If a person, committee, as defined in Section 82013 of the Government Code, or other entity creates, originally publishes, or originally distributes a qualified political advertisement, the qualified political advertisement shall include, in a clear and conspicuous manner, the following disclosure: “This _____ has been ~~generated, in whole~~ generated or ~~substantially,~~ substantially altered using artificial intelligence.”

(2) The blank in the disclosure required by paragraph (1) shall be filled with whichever of the following terms most accurately describes the media:

(A) Audio

(B) Image.

(3) (A) For visual media, the text of the disclosure shall appear in a size that is 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 shall appear in a size that is easily readable by the average viewer. For visual media that is video, the disclosure shall appear for the duration of the video.

(B) If the media consists of audio only, the disclosure shall 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 greater than two minutes each. listener.

(b) (1) This section does not alter or negate any rights, obligations, or immunities of an interactive service provider under Section 230 of Title 47 of the United States Code.

(2) ~~This section~~ Subdivision (a) does not apply to any of the following:

(A) A radio or television broadcasting station, including a cable or satellite television operator, programmer, or producer, that broadcasts a qualified political advertisement as part of a bona fide newscast, news interview, news documentary, or on-the-spot coverage of bona fide news events, if the broadcast clearly acknowledges through content or a disclosure, in a manner that can be easily heard or read by the average listener or viewer, that the qualified political advertisement may have been generated, in whole or substantially, using artificial intelligence. events.

(B) A radio or television broadcasting station, including a cable or satellite television operator, programmer, or producer, when it is paid to broadcast a qualified political advertisement.

(C) An internet website, or a regularly published newspaper, magazine, or other periodical of general circulation, including an internet or electronic publication, that routinely carries news and commentary of general interest, and that publishes a qualified political ~~advertisement, if the publication clearly states that the qualified political advertisement may have been generated, in whole or substantially, using artificial intelligence.~~ advertisement as part of a bona fide newscast, news interview, news documentary, or on-the-spot coverage of bona fide news events.

(D) A qualified political advertisement that constitutes satire or parody.

(c) The superior court, in a case brought before it by a registered voter, may issue a temporary or permanent restraining order or injunction against the publication, printing, circulation, posting, or distribution of any qualified political advertisement in violation of this section, and all cases of this nature shall be in a preferred position for purposes of trial and appeal, so as to assure the speedy disposition of cases of this nature.

(d) For purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:

(1) “Artificial intelligence” means a an engineered or machine-based system that can, for a given set of human-defined objectives, make predictions, recommendations, or decisions influencing real or virtual environments, and that uses machine and human-based inputs to do all of the following: varies in its level of autonomy and that can, for explicit or implicit objectives, infer from the input it receives how to generate outputs that can influence physical or virtual environments.

~~(A)Perceive real and virtual environments.~~
~~(B)Abstract such perceptions into models through analysis in an automated manner.~~
~~(C)Use model inference to formulate options for information or action.~~

(2) “Ballot measure” includes any of the following:

(A) City ballot measures.

(B) County ballot measures.

(D) Statewide ballot measures.

(3) (A) Any image, audio, video, or other media is ~~“generated, in whole~~ “generated or ~~substantially,~~ substantially altered using artificial intelligence” if either of the following conditions are met:

(i) The visual or audio media is entirely created using artificial ~~intelligence.~~ intelligence and would falsely appear to a reasonable person to be authentic.

(ii) The visual or audio media is materially altered by artificial intelligence such that the alteration would cause a reasonable person to have a fundamentally different understanding of the altered media when comparing it to an unaltered version.

(B) Any image, audio, video, or other media is not ~~“generated, in whole~~ “generated or ~~substantially,~~ substantially altered using artificial intelligence” if the media is immaterially altered by artificial intelligence, including a cosmetic adjustment, color edit, cropped image, or resized image.

(4) “Qualified political advertisement” means any paid advertisement, including search engine marketing, display advertisements, video advertisements, native advertisements, issue advertisements, printed advertisements, messaging service advertisements, mobile application advertisements, prerecorded telephone message advertisements, or sponsorships, relating to a candidate for federal, state, or local office, any election to federal, state, or local office, or a ballot measure, that contains any image, audio, or video that is ~~generated, in whole~~ generated or ~~substantially,~~ substantially altered using artificial intelligence.