Bill Text: CA AB410 | 2025-2026 | Regular Session | Amended

California Assembly Bill 410

Bill Title: Bots: disclosure.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2)

Status: (Engrossed) 2025-08-29 - In committee: Held under submission. [AB410 Detail]

Download: California-2025-AB410-Amended.html

Amended IN Assembly April 03, 2025

Amended IN Assembly March 24, 2025

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 410

Introduced by Assembly Member Wilson
(Coauthor: Assembly Member Bonta)

February 04, 2025

An act to amend Sections 17940, 17941, and 17942 of of, and to repeal and add Section 17943 of, the Business and Professions Code, relating to bots.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 410, as amended, Wilson. Bots: disclosure.

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 person who uses a bot to autonomously communicate with another to ~~disclose~~ ensure that the bot discloses to any person with whom ~~it interacts before any interaction takes place~~ the bot communicates when the bot first communicates with the person that the bot is a bot and not a human being, ~~to answer~~ answers truthfully any query from a person regarding its identity as a bot or a human, and ~~to refrain~~ refrains 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 that a reasonable person could believe is a human being and 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~~ outputs of generative artificial intelligence, as defined. The bill would exempt from its provisions a person who uses a bot that is required to comply with a more prescriptive disclosure scheme.

This bill would authorize the Attorney General, a district attorney, a county counsel, a city attorney, or a city prosecutor to bring a civil action to punish noncompliance, as prescribed.

Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NO

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

Section 17940 of the Business and Professions Code is amended to read:

17940.

For purposes of this chapter:

(a) “Artificial intelligence” means an engineered or machine-based system that varies in its level of autonomy and that can, for explicit or implicit objectives, infer from the input it receives how to generate outputs that can influence physical or virtual environments.

(b) “Bot” means an automated online account or application that a reasonable person could believe is a human being and 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~~ outputs of generative artificial intelligence.

(c) “Generative artificial intelligence” means artificial intelligence that can generate derived synthetic content, including ~~images, videos, audio, text, and other digital content.~~ text, images, video, and audio that emulates the structure and characteristics of the system’s training data.

(d) “Online” means appearing on any public-facing internet website, web application, or digital application, including a social network or publication.

(e)“Online platform” means any public-facing internet website, web application, or digital application, including a social network or publication, that has 10,000,000 or more unique monthly United States visitors or users for a majority of months during the preceding 12 months.
~~(f)~~

(e) “Person” means a natural person, corporation, limited liability company, partnership, joint venture, association, estate, trust, government, governmental subdivision or agency, or other legal entity or any combination thereof.

SEC. 2.

Section 17941 of the Business and Professions Code is amended to read:

17941.

(a) It shall be unlawful for any person to use a bot to communicate or interact with another person in California online, with the intent to mislead the other person about its artificial identity for the purpose 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. A person using a bot shall not be liable under this section if the person discloses that it is a bot.

(b) A ~~bot~~ person who uses a bot to autonomously communicate with another shall do ensure that the bot does all of the following:

(1) ~~Disclose~~ Discloses to any person with whom ~~it interacts before any interaction takes place~~ the bot communicates when the bot first communicates with the person that the bot is a bot and not a human being.

(2) ~~Answer~~ Answers truthfully any subsequent query from a person regarding its identity as a bot or a human.

(3) ~~Refrain~~ Refrains from attempting to mislead a person regarding its identity as a bot.

(c) The disclosure required by this section shall be clear, conspicuous, and reasonably designed to inform persons with whom the bot communicates or interacts that it is a bot.

(d) If a person who uses a bot is required by another law to comply with a more prescriptive disclosure scheme than this chapter, the ~~bot~~ person is not required to comply with this chapter.

SEC. 3.

Section 17942 of the Business and Professions Code is amended to read:

17942.

(a) The duties and obligations imposed by this chapter are cumulative with any other duties or obligation imposed by any other law.

(b) The provisions of this chapter are severable. If any provision of this chapter or its application is held invalid, that invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications that can be given effect without the invalid provision or application.

SEC. 4.

Section 17943 of the Business and Professions Code is repealed.

17943.
~~This chapter shall become operative on July 1, 2019.~~

SEC. 5.

Section 17943 is added to the Business and Professions Code, to read:

17943.
The Attorney General, a district attorney, a county counsel, a city attorney, or a city prosecutor may bring an action against a person who violates this chapter to obtain either of the following relief:
(a) Injunctive relief.
(b) A civil penalty of one thousand dollars ($1,000) per violation.