Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro signed the Artificial Intelligence Deceptive Advertising Act into law on Thursday. The rule requires a disclosure on any advertisement that was generated, or significantly modified, by artificial intelligence. The Verge reported the signing on Saturday.
The label has to appear in the same format as the ad itself. A video commercial needs an on-screen disclosure, a radio spot needs a spoken one, and a printed flyer needs visible text. That covers national television campaigns and small restaurant promotions equally.
Pennsylvania is among the first US states to require this kind of disclosure. The law also reaches beyond state lines. A commercial produced somewhere else still needs a label if broadcasters expect it to air in Pennsylvania.
Where the law stops short
Several terms in the statute leave room for argument. The law never defines what counts as “significantly modified” content, so the line between ordinary retouching and AI generation stays blurry. Enforcement will depend on how regulators read that phrase later.
There is also a carve-out for parody, satire, commentary, and criticism. Anything described as “evidently fictional” is exempt too, though the text never explains what that means. Those exceptions could cover a wide range of creative advertising work.
The disclosure requirement appears to apply only when synthetic content “creates a false consumer perception” about a product or service. Who decides what counts as false, and how quickly they decide, remains unclear. That gap matters for any advertiser trying to stay compliant.
State Senator Nick Pisciottano introduced the bill. His office did not immediately return a request for comment about the loopholes.
Why states are moving first
Washington has not passed a federal labeling standard for AI advertising. States have started writing their own rules instead, which creates a patchwork for national campaigns. California weighed a bundle of AI bills earlier this year along similar lines.
Advertisers already face pressure from the platforms they buy on. Google recently said Gmail and Photos data could feed its ad targeting, which raised parallel questions about consent and transparency.
Pennsylvania’s law targets deception in commercial speech rather than the wider use of AI in political messaging. Even so, it sets a marker that other state legislatures can copy. For small businesses the burden is a line of text or a spoken sentence. For national brands it is a compliance process that works across every state airing the same spot. Both now need to know exactly where their AI tools were used.
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