New York became the first state in the US to require advertisers to disclose AI-generated people in their ads. The law, S.8420-A, took effect on June 9, 2026, and it applies to any advertisement distributed to New York audiences regardless of where the advertiser is located. If your brand runs digital ads, social media campaigns, or video content that reaches consumers in New York, this law applies to you.
Before you start auditing every piece of creative, here's the most important thing to understand: this law is specifically and only about AI-generated human likenesses. It does not require disclosure for AI-generated images of products, backgrounds, or inanimate objects. It doesn't cover AI-written copy. It's narrowly scoped, and knowing where the line is drawn matters a great deal for what you actually need to do.
What the Law Actually Covers
The law defines a "synthetic performer" as a human-like digital asset created by generative AI or a software algorithm that engages in audiovisual or visual performances. In plain language: if a person appears in your ad and that person doesn't exist, you need to disclose it. That includes AI-generated models in product photography, AI-created influencer likenesses, digital humans in video ads, and AI avatars used in promotional content.
The disclosure requirement applies when the advertiser has actual knowledge that a synthetic performer appears in the advertisement. If your agency handed you finished creative and you genuinely didn't know it contained an AI-generated person, you have a factual defense. That said, a policy of willful ignorance isn't a compliance strategy, and the law is clear that producers and creators of advertisements are the responsible parties.
Disclosure must be "conspicuous," meaning it needs to be visible and in plain language. A buried footnote doesn't meet the standard. For social media posts, the disclosure should appear in the post itself. For video, it should appear in the video or in the first visible line of the description.
The law doesn't mandate specific language, but phrases like "this ad features an AI-generated person" or "synthetic performer used" are clear and defensible. When in doubt, err on the side of more visible rather than less.
What It Doesn't Cover
This is the part that's easy to misread, so it's worth being explicit. New York's law does not require disclosure for AI-generated images of products, AI-composed backgrounds, AI-generated landscapes or lifestyle scenes, AI-written copy, or AI-generated voiceovers that don't involve a human likeness. A photorealistic AI render of your product on a marble countertop doesn't trigger this law. An AI-generated person holding your product does.
The law also has explicit exemptions for audio-only advertisements, content that uses AI solely to translate a human performer's language, and expressive works like films, TV shows, and video games where synthetic performers appear in a manner consistent with the original work. Standard background removal and photo retouching are also outside the scope, as long as they don't create a new fabricated human likeness.
If you've been using AI to generate product imagery without human figures, you don't have a New York disclosure problem. The law is targeting synthetic humans in commercial advertising, not AI creative tools generally.
Who Needs to Pay Attention Right Now
DTC brands running paid social, display, or video advertising are the most directly affected. Fashion and beauty brands that use AI-generated models in product photography are squarely in scope. Brands that have experimented with AI influencers or digital brand ambassadors need to make sure their current campaigns are properly disclosed.
The penalties for non-compliance are civil: $1,000 for a first violation and $5,000 for subsequent violations. Each piece of non-compliant content is a separate violation, so a campaign running across multiple placements compounds quickly. Enforcement runs through New York's General Business Law, which means actions can be brought by the state attorney general or by private parties.
The geographic reach is worth emphasizing. The law applies wherever the advertisement is shown, not where the advertiser is based. You don't have to be a New York company or specifically target New York. If your digital campaign reaches New York consumers, which virtually all US digital advertising does, you're covered.
How This Relates to Amazon
We've written about how New York's law applies to Amazon A+ Content and the new upload checkboxes Amazon introduced alongside its own disclosure infrastructure. The Amazon situation has an additional layer: Amazon is independently requiring sellers to tag AI-generated images during upload regardless of what New York law requires. Those are two separate obligations running in parallel.
For brands selling on Amazon and running DTC through Shopify or their own storefront, the compliance picture is: on Amazon, follow Amazon's tagging requirements and disclose AI-generated human likenesses in A+ Content per New York law. On your DTC channels, add conspicuous disclosure to any advertising creative that features synthetic performers. The underlying obligation is the same in both cases. The mechanism is different.
What to Do Before Your Next Campaign
Audit your current creative library for any AI-generated human likenesses that are running as advertising. That includes paid social, display, email campaigns classified as advertising, and video. If you find synthetic performers without disclosure, update the copy or creative to add a clear label before your next scheduled flight.
Build disclosure into your production process going forward. The easiest place to catch this is at the creative brief stage, when you're deciding whether to use an AI model or a real person. If the answer is AI, the disclosure decision should be made at the same time, not retroactively when legal flags it.
If you're not sure whether specific creative falls under the law, the conservative approach is to disclose. The disclosure itself isn't a negative for consumers; increasingly, transparency about AI use reads as a mark of good faith. The risk of non-disclosure, both legal and reputational, is higher than the risk of over-disclosing.
If you want help thinking through your current creative setup and where you might have compliance gaps, we're glad to take a look. Schedule a call and we can walk through your advertising creative together and help you build a process that keeps you on the right side of this law as it evolves.