By Hamza Faisal
Pennsylvania has become one of the first US states to put a label on AI-made advertising. Governor Josh Shapiro signed the Artificial Intelligence Deceptive Advertising Act on Thursday, October 22, and the rule takes effect on December 21, giving advertisers 60 days to work out how to comply.
The law, Senate Bill 806, now recorded as Act 99 of 2026, passed the state Senate 48-2 in June and the House 163-40 on October 7. It targets a specific problem: ads that use synthetic content in a way that creates a false impression about what is being sold, whether that is a flawless AI-generated product shot, a synthetic spokesperson, or a cloned voice that a consumer would take for real.
What the law requires
When the rule is triggered, the ad must carry a clear and conspicuous disclosure saying it contains content modified or generated using artificial intelligence. The label has to appear when the synthetic content is first shown, in the same medium as the ad itself, on screen for a television commercial and on the page for a printed flyer, and, where technically feasible, it must be permanent or extraordinarily difficult to remove.
The measure covers images, video and audio. It exempts content limited to text, along with material that is evidently fictional and parody, satire, commentary or criticism. The disclosure must be noticeable and understandable, judged by how a consumer actually receives the content.
Who enforces it, and what it costs to ignore
Enforcement sits with Pennsylvania's attorney general and district attorneys, who can seek injunctions and civil penalties of up to $3,000 per violation, plus legal fees and costs. There is no private right of action, so consumers cannot sue under the law themselves.
The law also reaches beyond Pennsylvania's borders. It applies regardless of where an advertisement was produced, so a spot cut in California and aired in Philadelphia carries the same obligation, a detail that could push national advertisers to standardise disclosures rather than geofence them.
The grey areas advertisers are watching
The law leaves key phrases open to interpretation, including what counts as significantly modified and what creates a false consumer perception, questions that will likely be tested in early enforcement and guidance. Industry watchers expect the practical effect to land first on the most persuasive synthetic content: fake people, altered product imagery and synthetic voices doing the selling.
For consumers, the change is simple: from December 21, an ad in Pennsylvania that leans on AI to make its pitch should say so, in a format they can actually notice. For the advertising industry, it is an early model of how US states may police synthetic media, one disclosure at a time.
By Hamza Faisal
