California AB 410 (Bots: Disclosure 2025)

• Authority: California
• Parent authority: State governments
• Jurisdiction: United States
• Collections: U.S. state and local documents
• Most recent activity: Proposed
• Most recent activity date: 2025-02-04

Risk subdomain coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the risk subdomain are explicitly described.

• False or misleading information
• Disinformation, surveillance, and influence at scale
• Fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation
• Overreliance and unsafe use
• Lack of transparency or interpretability

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the risk subdomain are described.

• Pollution of information ecosystem
• Loss of human agency and autonomy

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document has good coverage of approximately 4-5 subdomains, with strong focus on malicious actors (4.1 disinformation and surveillance, 4.3 fraud and manipulation), misinformation (3.1 false information), and human-computer interaction (5.1 overreliance). Coverage is concentrated in deceptive AI use, fraud prevention, and transparency domains.

Sector coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the sector are explicitly described.

• Information
• Public Administration (excl. National Security)

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the sector are described.

• Trade, Transportation & Utilities
• Finance & Insurance
• Real Estate, Rental & Leasing
• Professional & Technical Services
• Health Care & Social Assistance
• Arts, Entertainment & Recreation
• Accommodation, Food & Other Services

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

The document governs AI bot use across multiple sectors, with explicit coverage of Information (online platforms and digital applications), Finance and Insurance (commercial transactions), and Public Administration (electoral processes). The law applies broadly to any sector conducting online commercial transactions or electoral activities in California.

Legislative Status

Hard Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a binding California statute with mandatory language, explicit enforcement mechanisms including civil penalties of $1,000 per violation, and designated enforcement authorities (Attorney General, district attorneys, etc.).

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: California State Legislature
• Summary: The document is a California state legislative act (AB 410) amending the Business and Professions Code, indicating it was proposed and enacted by the California State Legislature.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Developer, AI_Deployer
• Summary: The law targets any person who uses bots to communicate or interact with others online in California. This includes both developers who create bots and deployers who use them for commercial or electoral purposes.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Attorney General; district attorney; county counsel; city attorney; city prosecutor
• Summary: The law explicitly designates multiple California government legal authorities who may bring enforcement actions for violations.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Attorney General; district attorney; county counsel; city attorney; city prosecutor
• Summary: While no explicit monitoring body is designated, the same enforcement authorities would implicitly be responsible for monitoring compliance through their enforcement role.

AI Lifecycle Stages

Lifecycle stages covered by the documents, as defined in the OECD Framework for the Classification of AI Systems

• Deploy
• Operate and Monitor

AI Lifecycle Summary

The document primarily focuses on the Deploy and Operate and Monitor stages, requiring disclosure mechanisms at deployment and ongoing compliance during operation. It does not substantially address earlier lifecycle stages like planning, data collection, or model building.

Technical Scope

Terms relating to technical scope that are mentioned or implicitly referenced in the document

• AI Systems
• Generative AI

Technical Scope Summary

The document explicitly defines and covers artificial intelligence, bots, and generative artificial intelligence. It does not mention frontier AI, general purpose AI, foundation models, compute thresholds, or open-weight models. The focus is on bots powered by generative AI that interact with people online.