Twenty-four AI-related bills are queued for final floor votes in Sacramento before the Aug. 31 deadline, and the one that matters most for small businesses running ads in California is SB 1050. Sen. Angelique Ashby’s bill would require explicit disclosure whenever an advertisement features a synthetic performer: an AI-generated spokesperson, voiceover, or video talent. Gov. Gavin Newsom then has 30 days, through Sept. 30, to sign or veto. Anything signed takes effect Jan. 1, 2027.

SB 1050 cleared Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection 13-2 on June 16, Assembly Judiciary 9-0 on June 23, and came off the Aug. 13 suspense file at 12-1 in Appropriations. That’s the profile of a bill that isn’t going to die on the floor.

The suspense process itself explains the shape of this sprint. Any bill with a fiscal impact above $150,000 in the Assembly or $50,000 in the Senate gets referred there; this cycle, more than 600 bills advanced and 229 were held. What survived is what’s landing on Newsom’s desk in five days.

SB 1000, from Sen. Becker, passed the Senate 33-1 on May 19 and Assembly Appropriations 10-0 on July 1. It modifies the AI content provenance rules already in effect. The rest of the package fills in the edges: SB 1111 on digital-replica fraud (36-0 Senate, 15-0 suspense), AB 2713 from Wicks and Aguiar-Curry amending the California AI Transparency Act (74-0 Assembly, 8-0 Senate Privacy), Pellerin’s AB 2025 on AI-altered real-estate imagery, and SB 1015 on deepfake extortion targeting minors.

Context: 84 new AI laws were enacted across 27 states in 2026, three federal preemption attempts have failed, and the U.S. Senate stripped a proposed 10-year state AI moratorium from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act 99-1 in July 2025. In a 39-million-resident market, California’s disclosure regime is the de facto national one. ​

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