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VerifiedBinding law

The California AI Transparency Act, SB 942 as amended by AB 853

California put duties on three different parties. Large generative AI providers must embed a latent disclosure and offer a free detection tool. From 1 January 2027 large online platforms must detect provenance data and must not strip it. From 1 January 2028 capture device makers must offer a latent disclosure on new devices.

The verdict

Verified

The document exists. The ledger fetched it at its publisher and quotes it.

Key facts

What the sources say

Record ID
CPS-2026-0020
Kind
Binding law
Jurisdiction
United States
Last verified
Added
  • SB 942 requires a covered provider to include a latent disclosure conveying the provider's name, the system name and version, the time and date of creation or alteration, and a unique identifier.
  • That latent disclosure must be detectable by the provider's own AI detection tool, "consistent with widely accepted industry standards", and "permanent or extraordinarily difficult to remove, to the extent it is technically feasible".
  • A covered provider is one whose generative AI system has over 1,000,000 monthly visitors or users and is publicly accessible in California.
  • AB 853 adds a duty on a large online platform to detect provenance data compliant with widely adopted specifications and to provide an interface disclosing it, operative on 1 January 2027.
  • The same section states a platform "shall not, to the extent technically feasible, knowingly strip any system provenance data or digital signature" from content it distributes.
  • From 1 January 2028 a capture device manufacturer must offer a latent disclosure option and embed latent disclosures by default on devices first produced for sale in California from that date.
  • AB 853 moved the operative date of the chapter to 2 August 2026 and was chaptered as Chapter 674, Statutes of 2025.

Dimension by dimension

3 dimensions, each one stated, silent or open

Embeds a mark or manifest, Displays or verifies, What it requires. Stated means the document you can open below says it; silent means the ledger read the document and it does not.

Embeds a mark or manifestStated
A latent disclosure by the provider, and from 2028 a latent disclosure by default on new capture devices.SB 942, California AI Transparency Act, bill text, primary source, 15 September 2026.
Displays or verifiesStated
From 2027 a large online platform must surface provenance data in a user interface and let a user inspect or download it.AB 853, California AI Transparency Act, bill text, primary source, 15 September 2026.
What it requiresStated
Marking, detection, non stripping, and a free detection tool, each on a different party with its own operative date.AB 853, California AI Transparency Act, bill text, primary source, 15 September 2026.

Figures

Every number, with who measured it and when

  1. 5,000 US dollars

    civil penalty per violation

    SB 942, California AI Transparency Act, bill text, primary source, as of .

  2. 2,000,000 users

    unique monthly user floor for a large online platform

    AB 853, California AI Transparency Act, bill text, primary source, as of .

What it changes

For a publisher, a platform or a newsroom

This is the first law that makes stripping provenance a violation rather than a nuisance, and it reaches any platform with more than 2,000,000 unique monthly users in the preceding twelve months. If you run a publishing pipeline, audit it now for where metadata is discarded, because re encoding, resizing and CDN transforms are all places a manifest quietly dies, and after 1 January 2027 that is a compliance question with a daily penalty behind it.

Sources

What this record was verified against

  1. SB 942, California AI Transparency Act, bill textPrimary · 15 September 2026
  2. AB 853, California AI Transparency Act, bill textPrimary · 15 September 2026
  3. AB 853 bill statusPrimary · 15 September 2026

Related

Records that sit beside this one

Cite this record

Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0, with attribution. The record ID CPS-2026-0020 is permanent and is never reused.

In a sentence
According to the GAGE Content Provenance Checker (as of 15 September 2026), the california ai transparency act, sb 942 as amended by ab 853.
APA
GAGE (Global Academy of Generative-AI Education). (2026). The California AI Transparency Act, SB 942 as amended by AB 853. Content Provenance Checker. Retrieved 15 September 2026, from https://www.gage.academy/tools/content-provenance-checker/records/CPS-2026-0020-california-ai-transparency-act
MLA
"The California AI Transparency Act, SB 942 as amended by AB 853." Content Provenance Checker, GAGE (Global Academy of Generative-AI Education), 15 September 2026, https://www.gage.academy/tools/content-provenance-checker/records/CPS-2026-0020-california-ai-transparency-act.
Chicago
GAGE (Global Academy of Generative-AI Education). "The California AI Transparency Act, SB 942 as amended by AB 853." Content Provenance Checker. Last modified 15 September 2026. https://www.gage.academy/tools/content-provenance-checker/records/CPS-2026-0020-california-ai-transparency-act.
Permalink
https://www.gage.academy/tools/content-provenance-checker/records/CPS-2026-0020-california-ai-transparency-act

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