Add Art 42-A §§1150 - 1155, Gen Bus L; amd §79-h, Civ Rts L
Enacts the "New York fundamental artificial intelligence requirements in news act"; provides that any news media content published, broadcast, or otherwise disseminated or accessible within the state of New York, which was substantially composed, authored, or otherwise created through the use of generative artificial intelligence shall conspicuously imprint on the top of the page, webpage, image, graphic, video or other visual or audio/visual content, or verbally orate at the onset of audio content, that such content was substantially created by generative artificial intelligence.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
8962
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
August 13, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. ROZIC -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Consumer Affairs and Protection
AN ACT to amend the general business law and the civil rights law, in
relation to enacting the "New York fundamental artificial intelligence
requirements in news act"
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and be cited as the
2 "New York fundamental artificial intelligence requirements in news act"
3 or the "FAIR news act".
4 § 2. The general business law is amended by adding a new article 42-A
5 to read as follows:
6 ARTICLE 42-A
7 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN NEWS MEDIA
8 Section 1150. Legislative intent.
9 1151. Definitions.
10 1152. Disclosure to news media workers.
11 1153. Disclosure to consumers.
12 1154. Oversight of artificial intelligence systems.
13 1155. Workplace protections.
14 § 1150. Legislative intent. The legislature hereby finds that:
15 1. New York is the center of the American news industry and journal-
16 ists are a key part of the state's workforce.
17 2. Artificial intelligence can quickly generate articles, summaries,
18 news scripts, audio/visual and other media content that may seem profes-
19 sionally done to a lay observer. However, there is ample evidence that
20 content created by generative artificial intelligence: (a) contains
21 false or misleading content; and (b) plagiarizes by deriving its content
22 from original source material without permission or proper citation.
23 These failures are a disservice to the public who relies on the news for
24 accurate information about the world.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD13382-02-5
A. 8962 2
1 3. As such, the government has a strong interest in the preservation
2 of human news work. There is an urgent need to prevent news companies
3 from using artificial intelligence at the expense of both the broader
4 public and of news workers, including human reporters, editors, news
5 writers, directors, producers, voice actors, graphic designers and other
6 newsroom professionals.
7 It is therefore the intent of the legislature to establish clear,
8 meaningful protections for both journalists and the broader public to
9 ensure that the integrity of the news and its workforce are safeguarded.
10 § 1151. Definitions. As used in this article:
11 1. "Artificial intelligence", "artificial intelligence technology", or
12 "AI" means a machine-based system that can, for a given set of human-de-
13 fined objectives, make predictions, recommendations, or decisions influ-
14 encing real or virtual environments, and that uses machine- and human-
15 based inputs to perceive real and virtual environments, abstract such
16 perceptions into models through analysis in an automated manner, and
17 uses model inference to formulate options for information or action.
18 2. "Automated employment decision-making tool" means any software that
19 uses algorithms, computational models, or artificial intelligence tech-
20 niques, or a combination thereof, to materially automate or replace
21 human decision-making regarding employment, including but not limited to
22 wages and other compensation, hiring, selection for recruitment, disci-
23 pline, promotion, and termination. "Automated employment decision-making
24 tool" shall not include any software used primarily for basic computer-
25 ized processes, such as calculators, spellcheck tools, autocorrect func-
26 tions, spreadsheets, electronic communications, or any tool that relates
27 only to internal management affairs such as ordering office supplies or
28 processing payments, and that do not materially affect the rights,
29 liberties, benefits, safety or welfare of any individual within the
30 state.
31 3. "Generative artificial intelligence" means a class of artificial
32 intelligence models that are self-supervised and emulate the structure
33 and characteristics of input data to generate derived synthetic content,
34 including, but not limited to, images, videos, audio, text, and other
35 digital content.
36 4. "News media" means any publication or programming, regardless of
37 the medium or method of distribution, that provides news, weather, traf-
38 fic, sports, or entertainment reports or programming. This includes but
39 is not limited to newspapers, magazines, journals, periodicals,
40 websites, newsletters, television or cable programming, radio or podcast
41 programming, and internet or satellite-based content.
42 § 1152. Disclosure to news media workers. News media employers shall
43 fully disclose to workers when and how any generative artificial intel-
44 ligence tool is used in the workplace as it relates to the creation of
45 content, including, but not limited to, writing, recordings and tran-
46 scripts. Such disclosure shall include a description of the artificial
47 intelligence system and a summary of the purpose and use of such system.
48 § 1153. Disclosure to consumers. Any news media content published,
49 broadcast, or otherwise disseminated or accessible within the state of
50 New York, which was substantially composed, authored, or otherwise
51 created through the use of generative artificial intelligence shall
52 conspicuously imprint on the top of the page, webpage, image, graphic,
53 video or other visual or audio/visual content, or verbally orate at the
54 onset of audio content, that such content was substantially created by
55 generative artificial intelligence. If the content is eligible for copy-
56 right registration the disclosure requirement shall not apply.
A. 8962 3
1 § 1154. Oversight of artificial intelligence systems. Any news media
2 content, including stories, articles, audio, visuals or images, which
3 are created in whole or in material part by generative artificial intel-
4 ligence shall be reviewed by a human worker who has the authority to
5 approve, deny, or modify any decision recommended or made by the auto-
6 mated system before such content may be published with the disclosure
7 required pursuant to section eleven hundred fifty-three of this article.
8 § 1155. Workplace protections. 1. News media employers shall neither
9 directly nor through a third party authorize the training of a genera-
10 tive artificial intelligence system on the work product of a news media
11 worker without notice, consent and an opportunity to bargain over appro-
12 priate remuneration. A news media employer shall not penalize a news
13 media worker for declining to consent to allow their work product to be
14 used to train a generative artificial intelligence system.
15 2. (a) The use of generative artificial intelligence or automated
16 employment decision-making tools shall not diminish (i) the existing
17 rights of employees pursuant to an existing collective bargaining agree-
18 ment, or (ii) the existing representational relationships among employee
19 organizations or the bargaining relationships between the employer and
20 an employee organization.
21 (b) The use of generative artificial intelligence systems shall not
22 result in: (i) discharge, displacement or loss of position, including
23 partial displacement such as a reduction in the hours of non-overtime
24 work, wages, or employment benefits, or result in the impairment of
25 existing collective bargaining agreements; or
26 (ii) transfer of existing duties and functions currently performed by
27 employees or workers.
28 § 3. Section 79-h of the civil rights law is amended by adding a new
29 subdivision (h) to read as follows:
30 (h) Employers of professional journalists and newscasters shall estab-
31 lish safeguards to protect journalistic sources and confidential materi-
32 als, gathered through location tracking, surveillance or any other
33 means, which can be accessed by any artificial intelligence technology
34 as defined in article forty-two-A of the general business law.
35 § 4. Severability. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision,
36 section or part of this act shall be adjudged by any court of competent
37 jurisdiction to be invalid, such judgment shall not affect, impair, or
38 invalidate the remainder thereof, but shall be confined in its operation
39 to the clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section or part thereof
40 directly involved in the controversy in which such judgment shall have
41 been rendered. It is hereby declared to be the intent of the legislature
42 that this act would have been enacted even if such invalid provisions
43 had not been included herein.
44 § 5. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
45 have become a law.
