Policy tracker

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

Office of Governor Gavin Newsom (California)

• 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.

Production & craft Rights, IP & training data Labour & workforce

Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film (ITFS) 2027 regulations: generative-AI disclosure and labelling rule

Internationales Trickfilm-Festival Stuttgart (Film- und Medienfestival gGmbH)

• Entrants to ITFS 2027 must declare any use of generative AI in the production process, including systems used to generate or significantly alter images, animations, text, speech or music.
• Declared AI use does not automatically disqualify a film, but the festival may label or categorise films whose essential creative visual design was primarily created with generative AI.
• Intentionally false or misleading declarations can lead to exclusion; entry deadlines are 15 November 2026 for the short-film competitions and 15 January 2027 for features.

Governance & guidance

Statement of Interest of the United States on fair use in In re OpenAI, Inc. Copyright Infringement Litigation (S.D.N.Y., 1 September 2026)

United States Department of Justice

• On 1 September 2026 the United States told the court that copying written works to train large language models is, in general, fair use.
• The filing confines itself to the training stage, which it calls exceedingly transformative, and takes no position on acquisition of the works or on particular outputs.
• It is a statement of interest under 28 U.S.C. 517, not a ruling: it binds no court but records the executive branch's position, which later briefs will cite.

Rights, IP & training data

California SB 928: California State University faculty members and instructors of record must be human beings

California State Senate (Office of Senator Sabrina Cervantes)

• SB 928 requires that a faculty member and an instructor of record for a California State University course must be human beings.
• Signed by Governor Newsom on 27 August 2026; authored by Senator Sabrina Cervantes and sponsored by the California Faculty Association and the California Federation of Labor Unions.
• It regulates who may hold the teaching role, not the use of AI tools: coverage records that it does not prohibit employees from using AI to assist their work.

Labour & workforce Governance & guidance

National Cabinet backs national AI laws and mandatory data-centre standards (Australia, 26 August 2026)

Prime Minister of Australia (National Cabinet communique)

• On 26 August 2026 National Cabinet agreed the Commonwealth will legislate a nationally consistent framework setting minimum requirements for large data centres.
• Mandatory standards will cover data-centre energy, water and land use, with legislation intended for early 2027 including conditions associated with delivering AI training.
• The framework, AI laws in Australia's Interests, was announced on 15 July 2026 and now has the agreement of the Commonwealth and every state and territory.

Rights, IP & training data Governance & guidance

Digital Omnibus on AI, Regulation (EU) 2026/1744: AI Act simplification in force, education high-risk compliance deferred to 2 December 2027

European Commission

• Regulation (EU) 2026/1744, the Digital Omnibus on AI, was published in the Official Journal on 24 July 2026 and entered into force on 27 July 2026.
• Rules for Annex III high-risk systems, including AI used in education, now apply from 2 December 2027; Annex I product-embedded systems from 2 August 2028.
• A new prohibition on nudification systems applies from 2 December 2026, and the Article 4 AI literacy duty is softened to measures supporting staff literacy.

Governance & guidance

Assuring quality learning in a gen AI-integrated future: The role of adaptive capabilities

TEQSA (Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency)

• Third resource in TEQSA's assessment reform series (24 June 2026), shifting emphasis from securing assessment against gen AI to developing student capabilities.
• Names evaluative judgement, critical thinking and ethical reasoning as adaptive capabilities tertiary education should deliberately develop.
• Offers evidence-informed approaches for assuring learning quality where gen AI is embedded in study and future work, under the Threshold Standards.

Code of Practice on marking and labelling AI-generated content

European Commission · European Commission

• The European Commission published a voluntary Code of Practice on marking and labelling AI-generated content on 10 June 2026.
• It helps providers and deployers meet AI Act Article 50 transparency duties, which apply from 2 August 2026.
• It covers machine-readable marking by providers and the disclosure or labelling of deepfakes and public-interest text by deployers.

AI Adoption Plan: Creative Industries

UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology · AI Champion for the Creative Industries

• DSIT published an AI Adoption Plan for the Creative Industries on 8 June 2026, authored by the sector AI Champion.
• Its lead principle is augmentation first: AI should support human creativity, not displace creative workers.
• It reports 51% of creative businesses use AI versus 33% across all businesses, and sets out eight practical steps.

Rights, IP & training data

EU ratification of the Council of Europe Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence

Council of Europe

• The European Union ratified the Council of Europe Framework Convention on AI on 15 May 2026, the first binding international AI treaty.
• The Convention entered into force on 1 November 2025 and covers AI across public and private sectors, with education within its scope.
• Parties must ensure AI lifecycle activities comply with human rights, democracy and the rule of law, including risk assessments and remedies.

Governance & guidance

University of Surrey: AI embedded in every degree from September 2026

University of Surrey

• From September 2026 every University of Surrey degree will include discipline-specific AI teaching, from foundation year to postgraduate level.
• Creative practice is named alongside engineering, law, business and clinical disciplines as areas where core competencies will be preserved.
• Assessment is being redesigned institution-wide around process, decision-making and applied problem-solving rather than outputs.

Teaching, curriculum & assessment Governance & guidance

UK Report on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence: government drops opt-out TDM exception

UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT)

• The UK government formally dropped its preferred opt-out text and data mining exception in its statutory report on copyright and AI.
• The decision followed 11,520 consultation responses; the government will monitor industry-led licensing arrangements instead.
• No immediate legislative change was enacted; the report and impact assessment set the evidence base for future steps.

Rights, IP & training data Governance & guidance

European Parliament resolution on copyright and generative AI (TA-10-2026-0066)

European Parliament

• The European Parliament adopted its resolution on copyright and generative AI on 10 March 2026 by 460 votes to 71.
• It calls for full transparency on copyright-protected works used in AI training, including an itemised list of each work.
• Parliament asks the Commission to examine fair and proportionate remuneration of rights holders for past unlicensed training uses.

Rights, IP & training data Governance & guidance

Screen Australia AI Transparency Statement (stakeholder provisions)

Screen Australia

• Screen Australia requires any stakeholder use of AI, including by funding applicants, to be declared and consistent with its Terms of Trade.
• Since 2025 all agency funding application forms collect information on AI usage in applications and funded projects.
• The statement rests on Screen Australia's September 2024 AI Guiding Principles covering transparency, ethical use and accountability.

Production & craft Rights, IP & training data Governance & guidance

House of Lords report: AI, copyright and the creative industries

UK Parliament, Communications and Digital Committee

• The Lords Communications and Digital Committee finds UK creative industries face a clear and present danger from unremunerated AI training on copyrighted work.
• It recommends ruling out an opt-out text and data mining exception and making training-data transparency a statutory obligation.
• It urges a fair licensing market, protections against unauthorised digital replicas and style imitation, and sovereign AI capability.

Rights, IP & training data Labour & workforce

Thaler v. Perlmutter: Supreme Court denies certiorari, human-authorship requirement upheld

US Supreme Court / SCOTUSblog

• The US Supreme Court denied certiorari in Thaler v. Perlmutter on 2 March 2026, leaving the D.C. Circuit human-authorship ruling intact.
• The D.C. Circuit ruling stands: US copyright law requires a human author; an AI system cannot hold authorship.
• The ruling is limited to works with no asserted human authorship; human contributions to AI-assisted works are assessed case by case.

Rights, IP & training data

Ottawa International Animation Festival 2026: eligibility rule on AI-assisted and AI-generated work

Ottawa International Animation Festival

• Submitted works must be original with some level of non-algorithmic human involvement; AI-assisted works should at least show some sign of the artists' hand.
• Works that are fully AI-generated are not eligible and will be disqualified; repackaging other people's films as your own is grounds for immediate disqualification.
• The rule sits in the submissions FAQ and entry rules for the festival's 50th edition (23 to 27 September 2026) and applies across the competition.

Teaching, curriculum & assessment Governance & guidance

BFI guidance on AI use in funding applications and funded projects

British Film Institute (BFI)

• The BFI does not prohibit AI use in funded work but requires all applicants to be transparent about assistive and generative AI use.
• All BFI funding applications now include questions on AI use in the project and in preparing the application itself.
• Applicants and awardees must warrant that no third-party rights were or will be infringed, extending to any AI use in the project.

Production & craft Rights, IP & training data Governance & guidance

TEQSA regulatory-led framework for AI and assessment

TEQSA (Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency)

• TEQSA moves to a regulatory-led approach to generative AI and assessment in Australian higher education from 2026.
• Providers must evidence AI risk management and assessment validity under the Higher Education Threshold Standards.
• The Good Practice Hub resources apply to all disciplines, including studio-based creative-arts programs.

Teaching, curriculum & assessment Governance & guidance

Australian Framework for Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education

Australian Centre for Student Equity and Success (ACSES)

• Seven principles for ethical, equitable and effective AI across Australian higher education.
• Explicitly includes Indigenous knowledges as a core principle for institutional AI adoption.
• Developed by a multi-university team as the sector-wide companion to TEQSA's assessment guidance.

Teaching, curriculum & assessment Governance & guidance