Kathy Hochul Signs SAG-AFTRA Bills to Regulate AI Performers

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday signed two bills backed by SAG-AFTRA that will regulate the use of “synthetic” AI performers in New York.

One bill will require disclosure when an AI performer is used in advertising, while the second will forbid the use of a dead performer’s likeness to create a deepfake without the estate’s consent.

SAG-AFTRA pushed for similar legislation in California last year, winning approval of a law that protects dead performers from AI replicas.

The New York legislation goes further on the advertising front, requiring advertisers to “conspicuously disclose” when a synthetic performer has been used. A synthetic performer is a digital character generated by artificial intelligence that does not resemble an actual person. Requiring such disclosure could protect the jobs of human commercial actors.

Hochul signed the bills Thursday at a press conference at SAG-AFTRA’s New York headquarters. In a statement, she said the bills aim to “ensure we are fully transparent when using images generated by artificial intelligence.”

Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the executive director of SAG-AFTRA, said that the union is working with legislators to confront the “very real and immediate risks posed by unchecked AI use.”

“This is smart, forward-looking legislation that will have national impact,” Crabtree-Ireland said.

The digital replica bill applies to performers who lived in New York at the time of their death. It updates the state’s post-mortem right of publicity to explicitly forbid digital recreations using AI. The law carves out a significant exemption, however, for non-consensual replicas used in fictional and non-fictional entertainment, docudramas, news programming, satire, and other such works. For example, a show like “For All Mankind” would not be required to get permission to reanimate historical figures like John Lennon and Ronald Reagan.

The advertising disclosure bill likewise includes an exception for advertisements for films or TV shows that feature synthetic performers. Such carve-outs are intended to satisfy First Amendment concerns.

SAG-AFTRA continues to push for a federal law, the No Fakes Act, that would bar non-consensual deepfakes of performers and non-performers alike.