Existing law makes it unlawful for any person to use a bot to communicate or interact with another person in this state online with the intent to mislead the other person about its artificial identity for the purposes of knowingly deceiving the person about the content of the communication in order to incentivize a purchase or sale of goods or services in a commercial transaction or to influence a vote in an election, unless the person using the bot discloses that it is a bot. Existing law defines a "bot" as an automated online account where all or substantially all of the actions or posts of that account are not the result of a person.
This bill would require a bot to disclose to any person with whom it interacts before any interaction takes place that the bot is a bot and not a human being, to answer truthfully any query from a person regarding its identity as a bot or a human, and to refrain from attempting to mislead a person regarding its identity as a bot. The bill would redefine "bot" to mean an automated online account or application with respect to which substantially all of the actions or posts of that account or application are not the result of a human being or are the result of generative artificial intelligence, as defined. The bill would exempt from its provisions a bot that is required to comply with a more prescriptive disclosure scheme.

Statutes affected:
AB 410: 17940 BPC, 17941 BPC
02/04/25 - Introduced: 17940 BPC, 17941 BPC
03/24/25 - Amended Assembly: 17940 BPC, 17941 BPC, 17941 BPC, 17941 BPC, 17942 BPC, 17942 BPC