Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has signed the Artificial Intelligence Deceptive Advertising Act into law, making Pennsylvania one of the first states in the country to require disclosures on AI-generated advertising. The measure, signed on Thursday, takes effect in 60 days, according to CBS Pittsburgh.

Under the law, any advertisement — whether a still image, video, audio clip, or piece of text — that has been significantly modified or generated by artificial intelligence must carry a label, and that label must appear in the same format as the ad itself. A television commercial generated by AI would need an on-screen disclosure; an AI-written promotional email would need a text disclaimer; an AI-produced radio spot would need a spoken or textual notice. For more context on this story, see our ongoing artificial intelligence updates.

What the Law Requires

State Senator Nick Pisciottano, who introduced the bill, framed the measure as a consumer-protection rule for an era in which synthetic media is becoming indistinguishable from the real thing.

"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," Pisciottano told CBS Pittsburgh. "It's really to protect consumers."

The senator pointed to the explosion of AI-generated food images used by restaurants on social media as an example of how quickly synthetic content has spread into everyday advertising. "This technology is only going to get better and better, and eventually, it's going to get to the point where it's very difficult to differentiate between something that's real or fake," he said.

The Loopholes Critics Already See

Coverage from The Verge highlighted that the new statute leaves substantial room for interpretation. The obligation applies to content that has been "significantly modified or generated by artificial intelligence," but the law does not define how much modification counts as significant — a question that will likely be hashed out in enforcement practice or future amendments.

The law also includes carve-outs for parody, satire, commentary, or criticism, as well as for anything deemed "evidently fictional." Both exemptions rest on judgment calls that are not clearly specified. In addition, the statute's wording suggests the disclosure requirement is triggered when synthetic content creates a "false consumer perception" about a product or service, which raises further questions about who decides what counts as false.

Pisciottano's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Verge on how those provisions will be interpreted.

It Applies Even to Ads Made Elsewhere

One provision in particular gives the law reach well beyond Pennsylvania's borders. The disclosure requirement applies to anything shown in the state, regardless of where the ad was produced. As The Verge noted, that means national brands that air commercials in Pennsylvania may need to add AI labels to spots that also run in other states — effectively exporting Pennsylvania's disclosure standard to audiences nationwide.

For national advertisers, that dynamic is familiar: when a large media market imposes a labeling rule, the path of least resistance is often to apply the label everywhere rather than maintain two versions of every campaign.

Part of a Growing Wave of AI Disclosure Rules

Pennsylvania is not acting in a vacuum. States and regulators have been moving to require AI transparency in commercial media for the past two years:

  • California signed SB 1050, which requires advertisements to disclose when they feature AI-generated performers, and authorizes pulling violating spots from circulation.
  • The European Union began mandating labels on authentic-looking AI-generated content on August 2 under the AI Act's transparency rules, with fines that can reach 3 percent of a company's global revenue.

Against that backdrop, Pennsylvania's law is notable less for its ambition than for its breadth: it covers all ad formats, not just video or political advertising, and it applies to out-of-state creators whose work reaches Pennsylvania audiences.

What Advertisers Should Expect Next

With the effective date set for roughly two months out, companies advertising in Pennsylvania have a short window to audit their creative pipelines. Practical steps already underway at many agencies include tagging AI-generated assets during production, adding disclosure checks to legal review, and documenting where generative tools were used in image editing, voiceover, copywriting, and music.

Because "significantly modified" is undefined, compliance teams are likely to take a conservative approach — labeling anything with more than trivial generative involvement rather than risk a violation. For brands that already disclose AI use voluntarily, the new law changes little. For those that have been quietly filling feeds with synthetic product shots and AI voiceovers, the calculus in Pennsylvania just changed.

The broader question is whether other states follow. If a handful of large markets adopt similar all-format disclosure rules, a national labeling norm for AI advertising could emerge through state action alone — much as consumer-privacy standards spread after California acted first. For now, advertisers know one thing for certain: in Pennsylvania, unlabeled AI-generated advertising is about to become a legal liability.

Sources: The Verge, CBS Pittsburgh

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