California AB 853 and SB 1000: a plain-language brief
What California's AI provenance law requires, what two bills awaiting the Governor would change, and what it means for publishers. Written for policy, legal and product readers. Not legal advice.
The law these bills amend
The California AI Transparency Act, SB 942 (2024), requires covered generative AI providers to offer a free detection tool and to mark the image, video and audio content their systems produce. It does not cover text. AB 853, signed on October 13, 2025, delayed the Act to August 2, 2026 and added duties for large online platforms, AI hosting platforms and camera and device makers.
What AB 853 requires
| Who | What | From |
|---|---|---|
| Large online platforms: public social media, file-sharing and mass-messaging platforms and standalone search engines with more than 2,000,000 unique monthly users | Detect provenance data that follows a widely adopted standard. Show users when that data says content was made or substantially altered by AI, or captured by a camera or other device. Let users inspect the data. Do not knowingly strip standards-compliant system provenance data or digital signatures, to the extent technically feasible. | January 1, 2027 |
| AI hosting platforms | Do not knowingly make available a generative AI system that fails to place the required disclosures. | January 1, 2027 |
| Camera and device makers | For devices first produced for sale in California from that date: offer a latent disclosure naming the maker, device and capture time, and embed it by default, to the extent technically feasible and standards-compliant. | January 1, 2028 |
Violations carry a civil penalty of $5,000 each, and each day of violation counts separately. The Attorney General, a city attorney or a county counsel can sue.
What SB 1000 would change
SB 1000 is an urgency bill: if it becomes law, it takes effect at once. It would:
- Cover every provider of a public generative AI system in California, by removing the 1,000,000-user threshold.
- Replace the "AI detection tool" with a free "disclosure verification tool" that checks whether the provider's system made or altered image, video or audio content.
- Drop the duty to offer users a visible (manifest) disclosure.
- Require the hidden (latent) disclosure to say whether the AI created or altered the content, alongside the provider, system and version, time and a unique ID. The disclosure must be permanent or extremely hard to remove, and compatible with widely recognized industry standards.
- Change the licensing rule: a provider that learns a licensee broke compliance must end the license or notify the licensee within 72 hours; the licensee then has 96 hours to fix or stop and report back; unresolved cases go to the Attorney General.
- Delay the Act until January 1, 2029 for systems designed mainly as assistive technology, with a $50,000-per-day penalty for falsely claiming that status.
SB 1000 still applies to image, video and audio. It does not add text.
What AB 2713 would change
AB 2713 rewrites the platform section AB 853 added, still starting January 1, 2027. Large online platforms would have to:
- Detect provenance data embedded in, attached to or associated with content.
- Show users whether provenance data or a digital signature identifies content as made or substantially altered by AI, or captured by a device, and whether any signature is present.
- Let users inspect the data by showing it, linking to a viewer, or offering a download.
- Not knowingly strip system provenance data or digital signatures from content uploaded, distributed or downloaded, to the extent technically feasible.
It does not require platforms to act on provenance data that does not follow a widely adopted standard, or to show personal information.
What this means for publishers
- The provider duties cover AI-made image, video and audio. They do not cover news text.
- The platform rule against stripping covers standards-compliant digital signatures. A publisher's C2PA signature follows a widely adopted standard, so large platforms should not knowingly strip it where they can avoid it. The law does not say platforms must show a label on a human-written article.
- Test your own distribution path anyway. The law reaches large platforms, not every CDN, feed or partner.
- C2PA is the widely adopted specification most platforms are expected to read. A signed C2PA label supplies the provenance data and digital signature these duties refer to.