AI Content Disclosure and Detection (California SB 942 — AI Transparency Act)

SB 942 is the first US state law imposing detection-tool and content-provenance disclosure requirements on major generative-AI providers (over 1,000,000 monthly California users). It creates a $5,000-per-violation civil penalty enforceable by the California Attorney General, city attorneys, or county counsel.

Vendors provide C2PA-style content credential embedding, invisible watermarking, public detection APIs, provenance-metadata pipelines, and licensee-compliance monitoring for the 96-hour revocation requirement.

• Provide a free, publicly accessible AI detection tool
• Detection tool must accept uploaded content or a URL and expose an API
• Detection tool must return detected system provenance data but not personal provenance data
• Collect user feedback on tool efficacy and incorporate improvements
• Offer users the option to include a clear, conspicuous, permanent manifest disclosure on generated content
• Embed a latent disclosure conveying provider name, system name and version, creation date/time, and unique identifier
• Ensure latent disclosure is detectable by the detection tool and consistent with widely accepted industry standards
• Require third-party licensees by contract to preserve latent disclosure capability; revoke licenses within 96 hours of discovering disabling
• Do not retain personal information beyond what is necessary for compliance

SB 942 applies only to providers with over 1,000,000 monthly visitors or users publicly accessible in California. Products offering exclusively non-user-generated video game, television, streaming, movie, or interactive content are exempt.

Source: SB-942 California AI Transparency Act, California Legislative Information (leginfo.legislature.ca.gov). Effective 1 January 2026. Enforced by the California Attorney General, city attorneys, or county counsel; $5,000 per violation.