Pennsylvania AI Ad Disclosure Law Takes Effect in 60 Days

By Elena Vasquez

Pennsylvania’s Artificial Intelligence Deceptive Advertising Act takes effect in 60 days, after Governor Josh Shapiro signed the measure Thursday. Advertisers must disclose when an advertisement contains content generated or significantly modified by AI. They must present disclosures in the same format as the advertisement.

State Senator Nick Pisciottano, who sponsored the bill, told CBS News: “If you see an advertisement on Facebook or the internet somewhere and it was generated by AI, they have to put a disclaimer at the bottom that says this was generated by AI.” The sponsor’s example is straightforward; the statute’s enforcement machinery is less so.

What does this change for photographers?

For photographers and photo businesses, the first change is a client-compliance question, not a gear decision. Restaurants and food delivery apps increasingly use AI-generated product images, so assignments for those advertisers may raise contract and workflow questions before a brief is approved.

Studios will want to record whether they significantly modified delivered work and confirm, during approval, which company will attach the required disclosure. Keeping AI-edit notes in project files provides an audit trail without turning every photographer into a regulator.

Pisciottano said violations could bring fines and potentially jail time, but penalties would target AI companies rather than individual users. Companies would remain responsible for ensuring that required disclosures accompany AI-generated advertising. That distinction should give freelance photographers some comfort, not complacency.

The practical answer is to clarify AI use, disclosure ownership, approval responsibility and commercial scope in writing before accepting campaign work. For a studio, that can affect pricing and fees; it is dull, but cheaper than a dispute.

Scope and unresolved edges

The law follows the audience rather than the production address. Advertisements created outside Pennsylvania, including television commercials, may need disclosures once Pennsylvania audiences see them.

Its core prohibition targets deception, not AI as a tool. Advertisers cannot distribute an ad that uses synthetic content—meaning AI-generated or significantly altered material—to create a false impression about a product or service’s nature, origin or authenticity. They must include a clear disclosure stating that AI generated or modified the content.

The exemptions and undefined terms will shape actual enforcement. Parody, satire, commentary and criticism may fall outside the disclosure requirement, while content considered “evidently fictional” is exempt. The Verge notes that “significantly modified” and “evidently fictional” remain open to interpretation.

The Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General handles enforcement. That agency will have to determine how the disclosure thresholds and exemptions apply before businesses can know precisely which campaigns require labels.

Why the law arrived

The stated aim is consumer protection as AI-generated material spreads through digital platforms and traditional media. Pisciottano cited consumer groups representing older people. They told lawmakers that fake AI advertising had scammed consumers who were not sufficiently technologically literate.

He also warned that the technology will keep improving. “This technology is only going to get better and better,” he said, adding that consumers will eventually find it very difficult to distinguish real material from fake content.

Pennsylvania now ranks among the first states to impose disclosure requirements specifically for AI-generated advertising. Pisciottano said only a couple of other states have comparable rules and expects either the federal government or many states to follow.

That forecast remains a political expectation, not a scheduled rollout. The firmer deadline is the act’s effective date, 60 days after Thursday’s signing.

For photo businesses, expect AI-use and disclosure questions to reach client approvals before Pennsylvania finishes defining the edges. The state has set the clock. It has not finished sharpening the rules.