New York AI Synthetic Performer Ad Law: Disclosure Templates (Effective June 9, 2026)

June 9, 2026 came and went, and if your team runs AI-generated spokespeople, avatars, or "customers" in paid ads, that date now matters for anyone whose ads can reach a New York consumer. New York's General Business Law Section 396-b, the nation's first synthetic performer disclosure law, is in force. It is narrow, it is state-specific, and it is easy to comply with once you know what it actually requires, but the requirement is real and the penalties are not symbolic.

TL;DR: New York General Business Law Section 396-b took effect June 9, 2026. Any commercial advertisement containing an AI-generated "synthetic performer," a digital asset made with generative AI meant to look like a human but not an identifiable real person, must carry a conspicuous disclosure. The law applies to any ad that reaches New York consumers, regardless of where the advertiser is based. Penalties are 1,000 dollars for a first violation and 5,000 dollars for each one after that, enforced by the state, not private lawsuits. Platforms must remove flagged non-compliant ads within 5 days of notice.

What New York's Law Actually Requires

Section 396-b requires anyone who "produces or creates" a commercial advertisement containing a synthetic performer, where they have actual knowledge of that fact, to conspicuously disclose that the ad contains AI-generated performers. The obligation attaches to the advertiser and its agency, not just the platform hosting the ad.

The trigger is narrow but common. If your team has used an AI avatar tool, an AI-generated "customer testimonial," or a synthetic brand spokesperson in any paid or organic commercial ad that a New York resident could see, the disclosure requirement applies to that ad.

This is not a deepfake law in the sense most teams think about deepfakes. It does not require a real person's face or voice to be involved at all. A fully AI-invented person, one that has never existed, still triggers the disclosure obligation if it is used to look like a real human performer in a commercial ad.

Who Has to Comply, and Where

The geographic scope is the detail most small teams get wrong. New York's law is not limited to New York-based advertisers. It applies based on where the advertisement can be seen, not where the company producing it is located.

Practically, that means:

• A five-person marketing agency in Austin running Meta ads with a national targeting radius is in scope, because those ads can reach New York.
• A DTC brand running YouTube pre-roll with an AI spokesperson, with no geographic exclusion set up, is in scope.
• A B2B SaaS company running LinkedIn ads targeted only to a specific non-New York metro, with geofencing that actually excludes New York, has a stronger argument that the law does not apply to that specific campaign.

If your ad platform's default targeting is national or unrestricted, and you have not deliberately excluded New York, assume the law applies.

What Counts as a "Synthetic Performer"

The statutory definition is specific: a digital asset created, reproduced, or modified using generative AI or a software algorithm, intended to give the impression of a human performer, that is not recognizable as any identifiable real person.

That last clause is the dividing line. It separates New York's law from likeness and deepfake statutes in other states.

If your compliance question is "did we clone a real person's face or voice," you are asking the Washington or Tennessee question, not the New York question. If your question is "did we generate a fake human who looks real," that is squarely New York's Section 396-b.

The Disclosure Requirement: What "Conspicuous" Means

The statute does not define exact wording, placement, or type size for the disclosure. It only requires the disclosure be conspicuous. Law firms tracking the statute have pointed advertisers to the FTC's existing "clear and conspicuous" standard as the practical benchmark: the disclosure should be close to the claim it modifies, and prominent enough in size, contrast, duration, and placement that an ordinary consumer would actually notice and understand it.

In practice, that rules out a disclosure buried in a terms-of-service link, a caption cut off after "see more," or text that flashes for a fraction of a second in a 15-second video ad.

Copy-Paste Disclosure Language

Use language that plainly states an AI-generated performer is present. These are safe starting points, adapt them to your ad format:

Short form (social captions, on-screen text overlay):

"This ad contains an AI-generated performer."

Standard form (video ad intro or outro card, ad copy):

"This advertisement contains one or more synthetic performers generated using artificial intelligence."

Longer form (landing pages, website ads, print):

"One or more performers appearing in this advertisement are digitally generated using artificial intelligence and do not depict any real individual."

Platform-by-Platform Placement Guidance

The statute gives no platform-specific rules, so this is practical guidance based on the FTC's clear-and-conspicuous standard, not a legal requirement dictated by New York:

• Meta and Instagram (image/video ads): burn the disclosure into the video itself as an on-screen card for at least 3 to 5 seconds, and repeat it in the ad copy text, not just the caption below the "more" cutoff.
• TikTok: on-screen text overlay for the duration the synthetic performer appears, plus the disclosure in the video description.
• Google and YouTube: disclosure card at the start of pre-roll ads featuring a synthetic performer, and in the ad's text description for display and search formats.
• Website and landing pages: a visible disclosure near the AI-generated content itself, not only in a footer or privacy policy.
• CTV and streaming ads: on-screen disclosure card during the ad, since there is no accompanying text field to rely on.

Exemptions

Four categories fall outside the disclosure requirement:

1. Expressive works. Ads for movies, TV shows, streaming series, or video games, where the synthetic performer's use in the advertising is consistent with how it appears in the actual content.
2. Audio-only advertisements. Radio spots and podcast ads with no visual component.
3. Translation-only AI use. Where AI is used solely to translate a real human performer's original speech into another language.
4. Digital replicas of deceased performers. These are covered under a separate, related New York provision addressing digital replicas, not Section 396-b's synthetic performer disclosure rule.

Penalties and Enforcement

New York's Attorney General enforces Section 396-b. There is no private right of action, so an individual consumer cannot sue an advertiser directly under this statute.

Publishers and ad platforms have a separate obligation: once notified that an ad on their platform contains an undisclosed synthetic performer, they must remove or remediate it within 5 days or face their own enforcement exposure. That gives platforms an incentive to push disclosure requirements down to advertisers through their ad policies, so expect ad platform compliance forms asking about AI-generated content to expand over the second half of 2026.

Compliance Checklist for Small Marketing Teams

• 1. Inventory your AI-generated ad content. List every active and recently run ad campaign using an AI avatar, AI spokesperson, AI-generated testimonial, or any synthetic on-screen performer.
• 2. Confirm geographic exposure. For each campaign, check whether targeting excludes New York. If targeting is national, unrestricted, or you cannot confirm exclusion, treat it as in scope.
• 3. Classify each asset. Determine whether the AI-generated figure is a wholly synthetic performer (in scope) or a clone/likeness of a real, identifiable person (different law, different checklist).
• 4. Add the disclosure. Use the copy-paste language above, placed according to the platform guidance for each ad format you run.
• 5. Update creative review workflows. Add a synthetic-performer check to your ad approval process so new campaigns cannot launch without a disclosure decision being made.
• 6. Update vendor and agency contracts. If an outside agency or freelancer produces your ad creative, add a clause requiring them to flag synthetic performer use and confirm disclosure compliance before delivery.
• 7. Document your review. Keep a simple record of which campaigns were reviewed and the disclosure decision made for each, in case of a state inquiry.
• 8. Monitor platform-specific requirements. Ad platforms are likely to add their own AI-content disclosure fields; check Meta, Google, and TikTok ad policy updates monthly through the rest of 2026.

How This Fits With Other State AI Disclosure and Likeness Laws

Small teams running national ad campaigns are now navigating several overlapping but distinct obligations. Here is how New York's synthetic performer law relates to the two other prominent state likeness laws already in effect:

The practical takeaway: New York cares whether you disclosed a fake human. Washington and Tennessee care whether you got consent to use a real one. A national marketing team needs both checklists, they are not substitutes for each other, and running the same AI avatar campaign without addressing either one leaves two separate categories of exposure open at once.

Key Dates

Practical Next Steps

If your team has never run AI-generated performers in an ad, this law changes nothing operationally, just note it for future campaigns. If you have, the fix is genuinely fast: it is a disclosure and workflow problem, not a legal restructuring problem. Most small marketing teams can complete the checklist above in an afternoon, the harder, ongoing work is making sure new creative does not launch without the disclosure decision baked into the review step.

The bigger shift to watch is whether other states follow New York's approach. Several state legislatures introduced similar synthetic performer or AI-content-labeling bills in 2026 sessions, using New York's Section 396-b as a template. Building the disclosure habit and the creative review checkpoint now, rather than treating this as a one-state, one-time fix, will save your team from repeating this exercise state by state through the rest of the year.

Sources: New York State Senate Bill S8420A, New York General Business Law Section 396-b, and legal analysis from Reed Smith, Cooley, McDermott Will & Emery, and Davis+Gilbert LLP. This article reflects the law as enacted and in effect as of June 9, 2026; consult counsel for advice specific to your situation.

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