State Legislatures Advance 14 AI Disclosure Bills This Session
Fourteen states have active bills requiring disclosure when content is substantially AI-generated, with three already signed into law in 2026.
By Jonah Reyes, Politics & Policy
· 2 min read · Updated
Key Takeaways
- •Fourteen states have active AI content disclosure bills; three have signed laws in 2026 (New York, Colorado, Illinois).
- •New York's FAIR News Act requires human editorial review and disclosure for AI-substantial news content, with fines starting at $5,000.
- •Most bills use a 30 percent AI-generated threshold to define when disclosure is required.
- •No federal AI disclosure law currently exists, leaving states to set the standard individually.
Fourteen state legislatures have active bills this session that would require disclosure when news content, advertising, or customer service communication is substantially generated by artificial intelligence, and three states, New York, Colorado, and Illinois, have already signed such bills into law in 2026.
The bills vary significantly in scope and threshold. Most define substantially AI-generated as content where 30 percent or more of the substantive text was produced without direct human drafting, a threshold that mirrors informal FTC guidance rather than a binding federal rule.
Context box: why states are moving before Congress
The Short Answer
No federal AI disclosure law currently exists, so states are filling the gap individually, the same pattern that produced a patchwork of state privacy laws after California's 2018 privacy act. Companies operating nationally may end up complying with the strictest state's rule everywhere, rather than tracking 50 different standards.
New York's FAIR News Act, signed June 19, 2026, requires news publishers to disclose AI involvement and maintain a human editorial review step for content reaching New York residents, with civil penalties starting at $5,000 per violation for repeat offenders.
14
states with active AI disclosure legislation as of September 2026
Three have signed bills into law (New York, Colorado, Illinois); the remaining eleven have bills at various committee stages.
Colorado's version, signed in April, applies more narrowly to AI-generated advertising and customer service chatbots rather than news content, requiring a clear statement such as 'You are speaking with an AI assistant' within the first exchange.
“States are not waiting for a federal standard because the FTC's enforcement unit, while active, only reaches deceptive practice claims after the fact. A disclosure law is trying to prevent the harm before it happens, not punish it afterward.”
What happens next
Eleven additional states have bills at earlier stages, ranging from introduced to passed one chamber. None have a scheduled signing date as of publication. Legal analysts expect at least three more states to pass some version of a disclosure requirement before the end of 2026.
For publishers operating across state lines, the practical effect is that compliance with the strictest applicable state law, currently New York's, is the most efficient path, since retrofitting disclosure requirements state by state is more expensive than building one compliant standard from the start.
- artificial intelligence
- state legislation
- media policy
- disclosure law
Sources
- 01FAIR News Act, Signed Version, New York State Senatenysenate.gov
- 02AI Disclosure Legislation Tracker, National Conference of State Legislaturesexample.com
Corrections
No corrections have been made to this article.
About the reporter
Politics & Policy Reporter, Trestlewire
I cut my teeth covering a state legislature, which taught me that most of what actually changes people's lives happens in committee markups and agency rulemaking, not in the moments that make the evening news.
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