California AI Transparency Act
SB 942 is enforceable. Here is what a covered provider ships.
What the law requires, who it covers and when, mapped to the Verda feature that meets each duty. For the statute section by section, read Verda's California SB 942 guide.
Am I a covered provider?
Two questions from § 22757.1. Indicative, not legal advice.
The 30-second answer
§§ 22757.1 to 22757.5Who is covered
No threshold
Anyone who creates, codes or produces a generative AI system publicly accessible in California.
§ 22757.1(e)
What you must ship
- Latent disclosure in image, audio and video
- Free verification tool with an API
- 72-hour licensee response
§§ 22757.2, 22757.3
Penalty
$5,000
Per violation, per day. $50,000 per violation per day for false assistive-technology claims, until 1 Jan 2029.
§§ 22757.4, 22757.4.1
Verda covers all three with one API: a watermark at generation, a free verifier you host or link, and per-licensee keys.
Compare vendorsThe playbook
What to ship, by topic
Each part of the playbook on its own page, with the statute wording and common questions.
Seven steps to compliant
Every step from covered-provider status to the tool's retention statement, with the 72-hour licensee clock.
Open the checklist → Latent disclosure, § 22757.3(a)Five facts, hidden in every output
What every image, video and audio output must carry, and where each field lives.
The five fields → Verification tool, § 22757.2A free checker anyone can use
Run your own disclosure verification tool, or link a compliant third-party one.
Tool requirements → Vendors comparedScored against the statute, not a brochure
Verda, SynthID, Adobe Content Authenticity and Meta AudioSeal / Video Seal, row by row.
Compare vendors →AB 853 and AB 2713
Who is next, and when
AB 853 added three roles. AB 2713 rewrote the platform duties.
Covered providers
SB 1000 and AB 2713 signed
Provider duties enforceable
Platforms
Capture devices
Assistive-technology field
Large online platforms
Over 2,000,000 unique monthly California users. Detect, show and never strip provenance.
AB 2713 wording
Detect provenance data on distributed content; show whether it or a digital signature is present and which GenAI system or capture device it names; let users inspect it in your interface, through a link to a website or app (a third party's is allowed) or by download. Do not strip it, including on download. Provenance that does not follow widely adopted specifications from an established standards body need not be acted on.
Verda: C2PA read plus watermark decode.
GenAI hosting platforms
Do not knowingly make available a system that lacks the latent disclosure.
Verda: pre-listing check of a hosted model's outputs.
Capture device manufacturers
Offer latent disclosure and device-authenticity provenance.
Verda: on-device encode.
FAQ
Questions buyers ask
Does SB 942 apply to real-time voice agents?
The statute covers audio content created or altered by a covered provider's system. Whether a particular live call is "content" under the Act needs a use-case review; Verda marks real-time and recorded audio either way.
We use C2PA. Is that our latent disclosure?
AB 853 recognises standards-based provenance, but manifests are stripped on most re-uploads and the statute asks for durability. Ship a manifest and a watermark together.
Can the disclosure verification tool be on our own domain?
Yes. The white-label verifier runs on your domain, returns the five fields, and never returns personal data. Since SB 1000 you may instead direct users to a third-party tool, such as the hosted verifier at verda.ai/verify, as long as it complies with § 22757.2, reads your latent disclosures and is clearly reachable from your GenAI interface.
What about our API customers who fine-tune the model?
They are licensees. You must notify them of their obligations. If you learn that one has modified the model so it no longer complies, you have 72 hours to terminate the licence or notify them; they then have 96 hours to fix it or stop, and report. Per-licensee keys make termination a single action.
Is this the same as AB 2013?
No. AB 2013 is the training-data documentation law, operative 1 January 2026. SB 942 is about marking outputs and offering detection.