California SB 1050: disclosure of synthetic performers in video and audio advertising

Key points

SB 1050, signed on 16 September 2026, requires explicit disclosure on any video or audio advertisement that uses AI-generated performers to sell a product or service.
An advertisement found to be in violation may not continue to be used; California is the second state with such a rule, after New York.
Authored by Senator Angelique Ashby and sponsored by SAG-AFTRA, which helped draft the language; signed at the union's Los Angeles headquarters.

Summary

Governor Newsom signed Senate Bill 1050 on 16 September 2026 at the Los Angeles headquarters of SAG-AFTRA, the bill's sponsor, with its author, Senator Angelique Ashby (D-Sacramento). In the Governor's words the law requires "the explicit disclosure on any video or audio advertisement that uses AI-generated performers to sell a product or service" and "prohibits the continued use of any advertisement found to be in violation of the law". The release describes a synthetic performer as "an AI-created digital figure, voice, or representation that often appears so realistic" that it is hard to tell from a person. Senator Ashby framed the purpose as consumer protection and "disallowing AI to replace real people"; SAG-AFTRA's Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said the union "was proud to help craft the language of the bill, which gives consumers greater transparency by making clear when they are seeing synthetics rather than human performers". California follows New York, whose synthetic-performer disclosure law (S8420A) took effect in June 2026. The statute reaches animation graduates most directly through advertising work, where digital humans and synthetic voices are now routine.

Implications for animation education

For programs whose graduates work in commercials, motion graphics, digital humans and synthetic voice, California advertising now carries a disclosure duty when the performer is AI-generated, and an advertisement that fails it can be pulled. Two teaching consequences follow. Professional-practice units should add the disclosure step to the delivery checklist for advertising work aimed at the California market, alongside the AB 2602 consent rules for digital replicas of real performers, and treat New York's June 2026 rule as the second market with the same requirement. Assessment briefs that ask students to build synthetic presenters or spokes-characters for commercial scenarios can use the statute as the frame for a labelling requirement. The precise disclosure form, the operative date and the enforcement route are in the chaptered text, which this entry does not yet reproduce; check it before writing the rule into a unit outline.

Source

Source: Office of Governor Gavin Newsom (California) ↗ (Policy Text)

Primary document: leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB1050 ↗

Cite this item

Office of Governor Gavin Newsom (California) (2026). ‘California SB 1050: disclosure of synthetic performers in video and audio advertising’, Office of Governor Gavin Newsom (California). Available at: https://www.gov.ca.gov/2026/09/16/governor-newsom-signs-new-law-to-protect-workers-require-disclosures-on-ai-generated-advertising/

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