BILL NUMBER: S6954B
SPONSOR: GOUNARDES
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the general business law, in relation to requiring
synthetic content creations system providers to include provenance data
on synthetic content produced or modified by a synthetic content
creations system that the synthetic content creations system provider
makes available
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
To require synthetic content creation system providers to apply prove-
nance data to synthetic content produced by their systems
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section one of this bill names it the Stop Deepfakes Act
Section two of the bill adds a new Article 45-B to General Business Law
(GBL) to establish the Stop Deepfakes Act.
Section 1540 of Article 45-B provides definitions.
Section 1541 of Article 45-B implements requirements for synthetic
content creation providers and requires the attachment of metadata
consistent with the standards set by the Coalition for Content Prove-
nance and Authenticity or an equivalent standard.
Section 1542 of Article 45-B establishes that large online platforms may
not remove metadata attached to uploaded content and must prominently
surface latent provenance data where it is detected.
Section 1543 of Article 45-B implements requirements for state agencies
to adopt metadata attachment mechanisms to the extent practicable.
Section 1544 establishes enforcement by the NYS Attorney General.
Section three of this bill sets the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
This legislation seeks to ensure transparency and accountability in the
use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) by requiring the attach-
ment and preservation of metadata by synthetic content creation systems,
large public-facing platforms, and state agencies. The rapid advancement
of AI technologies has made it increasingly difficult for consumers to
distinguish between human-created and AI-generated content, raising
concerns about misinformation, manipulation, and the erosion of trust in
digital media. By mandating that AI providers include clear provenance
data, this bill will enable the public to identify the origins and
alterations of AI-generated content. The bill would only impose obli-
gations on companies that provide users synthetic content and would not
impose obligations on companies that merely make available model weights
or source code. Companies would also not have to attach this kind of
data to types of files which cannot support it.
In line with current industry best practices, this light-touch bill
would help establish clear demarcations between what is real and fake
online. The data attached would be embedded within the content itself,
allowing for an icon, tag, or other visible manifestation of detected
provenance data that would, by default, come with all AI-generated or
-modified content. The Stop Deepfakes Act imposes three requirements
synthetic content creation providers have to attach metadata, large
online platforms have to preserve metadata, and state agencies have to
attach the data to the extent practicable.
This kind of data is attached to images, videos, and audio all the time,
and thus it is a relatively small burden to add a bit more data to
ensure that AI-generated content is clearly indicated.
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2025: Passed Senate, ordered to Third Reading in Assembly
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
TBD
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after it
shall have become a law.