AB 3211: California Digital Content Provenance Standards.

Existing law requires the Secretary of Government Operations to develop a coordinated plan to, among other things, investigate the feasibility of, and obstacles to, developing standards and technologies for state departments to determine digital content provenance. For the purpose of informing that coordinated plan, existing law requires the secretary to evaluate, among other things, the impact of the proliferation of deepfakes, as defined.

This bill, the California Digital Content Provenance Standards, would require a generative artificial intelligence (AI) provider, as provided, to, among other things, apply provenance data to synthetic content produced or significantly modified by a generative AI system that the provider makes available, as those terms are defined, and to conduct adversarial testing exercises, as prescribed. The bill would prohibit, among other things, providers and distributors of software and online services from making available a system, application, tool, or service that is designed for the primary purpose of removing provenance data from synthetic content, as provided.

This bill would require a newly manufactured recording device sold, offered for sale, or distributed in California to offer users the option to apply difficult to remove provenance data to nonsynthetic content produced by that device and would require the application of that provenance data to be compatible with state-of-the-art adopted and relevant industry standards. If technically feasible and secure, the bill would require a recording device manufacturer to offer a software or firmware update enabling a user of a recording device manufactured before July 1, 2026, and purchased in California to apply difficult to remove provenance data to the nonsynthetic content created by the device and decode any provenance data attached to nonsynthetic content created by the device.

This bill would require a large online platform, as defined, capable of disseminating specified content to use labels to disclose, as specified, any machine-readable provenance data detected in synthetic content that is distributed on its platform. If content uploaded to or distributed on a large online platform by a user does not contain specified provenance data or if the contents provenance data cannot be interpreted or detected, the bill would require a large online platform to label the content as having unknown provenance. The bill would require a large online platform to use a visual disclosure that contains specified information, including the copyrightholder or licensor information, when labeling and disclosing provenance data of sound recordings and music videos.

Beginning July 1, 2026, and annually thereafter, this bill would require a large online platform to produce a transparency report that identifies moderation of deceptive synthetic content on their platform and would authorize that report to include, among other things, instances where synthetic or potentially deceptive content was identified and removed by the platform, as applicable.

This bill would authorize the Department of Technology (department) to assess specified administrative penalties for prescribed violations of the bills provisions, including an administrative penalty of up to $500,000 $100,000 for each violation that is intentional or is the result of grossly negligent conduct, to be deposited in the Digital Content Provenance Administrative Fund which the bill would establish in the State Treasury. The bill would, upon appropriation by the Legislature for this express purpose, authorize the expenditure of moneys in the fund by the department to administer these provisions.

This bill would make its provisions operative on July 1, 2026.