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H5094 • 2025

An Act enhancing disclosure requirements for synthetic media in political advertising

An Act enhancing disclosure requirements for synthetic media in political advertising

Active

The official status still shows this bill as active or still awaiting another formal step.

Sponsor
Ways and Means (H)
Last action
2026-02-12
Official status
Referred to Senate Committee on Ways and Means
Effective date
Not listed

Plain English Breakdown

Using official source text because the generated explanation was unavailable or could not be confirmed against the official bill text.

An Act enhancing disclosure requirements for synthetic media in political advertising

An Act enhancing disclosure requirements for synthetic media in political advertising Status: Referred to Senate Committee on Ways and Means

What This Bill Does

  • An Act enhancing disclosure requirements for synthetic media in political advertising Status: Referred to Senate Committee on Ways and Means

Limits and Unknowns

  • This entry is temporarily using official source text because the generated explanation could not be confirmed against the official bill text during the last sync.

Bill History

  1. 2026-02-12 Senate

    Read; and referred to the committee on Senate Ways and Means

  2. 2026-02-11 House

    Reported from the committee on House Ways and Means

  3. 2026-02-11 House

    Pending new draft of H846

  4. 2026-02-11 House

    New draft of H846

  5. 2026-02-11 House

    Ordered to a third reading

  6. 2026-02-11 House

    Rules suspended

  7. 2026-02-11 House

    Read third

  8. 2026-02-11 House

    Amendment 4 adopted

  9. 2026-02-11 House

    Passed to be engrossed - 157 YEAS to 0 NAYS ( See YEA and NAY No. 122 )

Official Summary Text

An Act enhancing disclosure requirements for synthetic media in political advertising
Status:
Referred to Senate Committee on Ways and Means

Current Bill Text

Read the full stored bill text
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Bill H.5094

SECTION 1. Section 1 of chapter 50 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2024 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after the definition of “Aldermen” the following definition:-

“Artificial intelligence” or “AI”, the capability of a computer system to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, including, but not limited to, visual perception, speech recognition, content generation and decision-making.

SECTION 2. Said section 1 of said chapter 50, as so appearing, is hereby further amended by inserting after the definition of “Federal act” the following definition:-

“Generative artificial intelligence”, artificial intelligence technology capable of creating content, including, but not limited to, text, audio, image or video based on patterns learned from large volumes of data rather than being explicitly programmed with rules.

SECTION 3. Said section 1 of said chapter 50, as so appearing, is hereby further amended by inserting after the definition of “State officer” the following definition:-

“Synthetic media”, audio or video content substantially produced by generative artificial intelligence.

SECTION 4. Chapter 56 of the General Laws is hereby amended by adding the following section:-

Section 70. (a) Any audio or video communication that: (i) is paid for by a candidate campaign committee, political action committee, political issues committee, political party or a person using a contribution; (ii) is intended to influence voting for or against a candidate or ballot proposition in an election or primary; and (iii) contains synthetic media shall include: (1) at the beginning and end of the communication the words “contains content generated by AI”; and (2) throughout the duration of each portion of the communication containing synthetic media the words: (A) “This video content was generated by AI”, if the communication includes only video synthetic media; provided, that the words shall be in legible writing; (B) “This audio content was generated by AI”, if the communication includes only audio synthetic media; provided, that the words shall be in a clearly spoken manner; or (C) “This content was generated by AI”, if the communication includes both video and audio synthetic media; provided, that the words shall be in legible writing.

(b) A violation of this section shall be punished by a fine of not more than $1,000. Compliance with this section shall not exempt a person from civil or criminal liability for a violation of other applicable law.

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