If you run digital marketing campaigns, run an ad agency, or buy programmatic space in the United States, your workflow just got legally complicated. As of June 9, 2026, New York State law requires companies to explicitly disclose when an advertisement uses what it calls a "synthetic performer."
This isn't a future proposal or a loose industry guideline. It's an active, binding amendment to New York General Business Law Section 396-b. If your ad runs in New York—whether it's on a physical billboard in Times Square, a sponsored Instagram reel, or a targeted YouTube bumper ad—and it features a non-existent human being generated by code, you have to label it. If you don't, you face cash penalties directly from the state. Learn more on a similar topic: this related article.
Many marketing departments think they can skate by because they aren't using "deepfakes" of actual celebrities. That's a massive misunderstanding of how the statute is written.
What Counts as a Synthetic Performer
The state defines a synthetic performer as a digitally created asset created, reproduced, or modified by computer, using generative artificial intelligence or a software algorithm, that is intended to create the impression that the asset is engaging in a human performance. Further journalism by Business Insider highlights related views on this issue.
The law targets the creation of fake humans who look totally real but don't actually exist. Think of those stock-photo style avatars generated by platforms like HeyGen or Synthesia, or mid-journey models tailored to look like a friendly neighborhood store clerk.
Look closely at the phrase "or a software algorithm." You don't even have to use a fancy large language model or generative platform to trigger this rule. If your production team builds a photorealistic virtual human using traditional 3D rendering pipelines and computer visual effects software, the state still counts it as a synthetic performer. The law targets the visual result, not just the specific technical tool you used to get there.
The Limits of the Mandate
To fall under this specific disclosure rule, the asset has to meet two criteria.
- It must look like a real human performing.
- It must not be recognizable as an actual, living or deceased natural person.
If you generate an AI cartoon mascot, an animated talking dog, or a hyper-stylized abstract entity, you don't need the label. The law only triggers when the asset creates the distinct impression of a human being.
What happens if you do digitally clone a real, identifiable individual? That moves out of this statute's jurisdiction and straight into the territory of right-of-publicity laws, the New York State Fashion Workers Act, and SAG-AFTRA contract violations. New York already passed the Posthumous Right of Publicity Expansion Act to handle unauthorized digital resurrections of deceased individuals. This synthetic performer law is specifically designed to close the loophole for entirely fictional people.
The Penalties and Who Pays Them
The financial penalties look small on paper, but they stack up fast. A first violation brings a civil penalty of $1,000. Every subsequent violation jumps to $5,000.
First Offense: $1,000 per violation
Subsequent Offenses: $5,000 per violation
The state doesn't look at a multi-week campaign as a single violation. If you run five distinct ad variations across three platforms without a label, you are looking at multiple individual infractions.
The legal liability falls entirely on the brand and the creators of the commercial. The law includes an explicit liability exemption for media platforms, publishers, and broadcasters. If local New York television stations, magazines, or streaming networks run an ad that violates the law, they aren't the ones getting fined. The state goes directly after the business buying the ad or the creative agency that built it.
The law hinges on "actual knowledge." If a brand commissions an agency to build an ad, and that agency slips an AI-generated extra into the background without telling the brand, the legal battle will come down to contractual indemnity.
Practical Implementation of Conspicuous Disclosure
The state expects a "conspicuous disclosure," but the text of the bill doesn't provide an exact font size, hex color code, or placement grid. Advertisers have to look toward established Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines to understand what "conspicuous" means in practice.
Buried text in a tiny link at the bottom of a web page won't cut it. The disclosure needs to be unavoidable for the average consumer viewing the content.
Clear Language Options
You don't need to overthink the wording, but it needs to be direct. Avoid vague corporate phrasing. Several legal compliance teams are adopting standard notices like these.
"AI-Generated Performer Notice: The person appearing in this advertisement was digitally created using artificial intelligence and does not represent any actual individual."
"The performers shown in this ad are computer-generated using AI. They are not real people."
Media Formats and Exemptions
The rules change depending on the medium you use.
- Video and Display Ads: The notice must appear on-screen clearly, written in a contrast color that stands out against the background, lasting long enough for a typical user to read.
- Audio Advertisements: The law contains an explicit exemption for audio-only content. Radio ads and audio-only podcast sponsorships do not require a spoken disclaimer.
- Language Translation: If you use an AI tool to alter the lip-sync of a real human actor so they appear to speak Spanish or Mandarin, you don't need the synthetic performer label. That remains governed by standard performer likeness contracts.
- Expressive Works: Promos, trailers, and ads for movies, television shows, streaming series, and video games are exempt, provided the synthetic performer actually appears in the final creative work itself.
Why the Industry Fought the Law
The American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As) fiercely opposed this legislation while it moved through the state capitol. The group argued that it injects compliance uncertainty into the production ecosystem, creating administrative burdens for national brands that happen to target consumers in the New York market.
The friction point is regional targeting. If a national brand builds a unified digital campaign using synthetic models to save on production costs, they now face a dilemma. They must either run the disclaimer nationwide, or build separate, geo-targeted ad sets specifically for New York viewers that include the label.
The New York State Broadcasters Association expressed deep concern during the amendment process regarding the broad definition of what makes an asset look like a human. While local stations are ready to comply, the lack of rigid boundaries means creative agencies are left guessing exactly how lifelike an avatar has to be before a New York regulator flags it.
Conversely, the biggest champion of the bill was SAG-AFTRA. The actors' union views the law as a vital shield for human employment. By forcing brands to attach a warning label to synthetic talent, the law reduces the financial incentives to replace human actors with digital assets. It forces brands to weigh the cost savings of AI against the potential reputational hit of labeling their brand ambassadors as fake.
Action Steps for Marketing Teams
The regulatory environment for artificial systems is fracturing. Just after New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed this bill, the federal executive branch issued orders attempting to curb state-level AI regulations out of concern that a patchwork of local laws could slow domestic tech development. For now, state consumer protection laws rule the day, and New York is a regulatory trendsetter. What starts here usually replicates in California, Illinois, and beyond.
To ensure your active campaigns don't trigger state penalties, you need to update your operational workflows immediately.
First, audit your active creative inventory. Check every digital asset currently running on social media or programmatic networks that targets the Northeast. Identify if any backgrounds, crowd scenes, or spokespeople were built using algorithmic tools or generative platforms.
Second, rewrite your vendor and agency contracts. Add strict clauses requiring external creative shops to disclose if they use any computer-generated human assets. Ensure your contracts include clear indemnification language shifting the financial burden of state fines to the agency if they use synthetic performers without your explicit knowledge.
Third, establish a standard disclosure overlay for your production team. Build a clean, legible template for the required disclaimer text so you can quickly apply it to any ad variations slated for New York distribution. Don't wait for an enforcement notice to figure out where the text fits on your mobile layouts.
