Assembly committee advances four consumer-related bills on AI training transparency, surveillance pricing, deepfakes and delivery refunds

The California State Assembly Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection on an organizational day heard testimony and advanced four bills that members and witnesses said aim to update consumer protections for a fast-changing digital economy.

Assemblymember Bauer Kehan’s AB 412, the AI Copyright Transparency Act, would create a mechanism for copyright holders to ask model developers whether a specific copyrighted work was included in datasets used to train generative AI models. ‘‘This is an incredibly simple bill that allows copyright owners to have a right to know when their copyrighted materials are used to train generative AI,’’ Assemblymember Bauer Kehan said as she introduced the measure. Supporters including Jolie Fisher, secretary-treasurer of SAG‑AFTRA, and Jay Jesima, co‑founder of the Transparency Coalition, told the committee creators currently lack reliable ways to learn whether their works were incorporated in training datasets. Fisher testified that "AI can't do anything on its own and no AI algorithm is able to make something out of nothing" and urged the panel to support disclosure mechanisms so creators can pursue remedies where appropriate. Developers and industry groups argued the proposal raises feasibility, preemption and implementation concerns and could advantage large firms, with speakers from the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the California Chamber of Commerce urging additional…