Synthetic Performer Disclosure Law: What Creator Marketing Brands Must Know (2026)

What is New York’s synthetic performer disclosure law?

New York’s synthetic performer disclosure law requires advertisers to conspicuously disclose when an ad includes a digitally created performer generated by AI or similar software who is not recognizable as any real, identifiable person, provided the advertiser has actual knowledge that performer appears in the ad.

On January 29, 2026, Governor Kathy Hochul signed S.8420-A/A.8887-B, codified at N.Y. General Business Law § 396-b, and the disclosure requirement took effect June 9, 2026. A synthetic performer, under the statute, is a digitally created asset intended to create the impression of a human performer engaged in an audiovisual or visual performance, where that performer is not recognizable as any identifiable natural person — distinct from a real creator whose likeness was digitally altered, which New York’s separate digital-replica provisions address instead.

Per McDermott Will & Emery’s analysis of the statute, the disclosure duty attaches only where the advertiser actually knows a synthetic performer appears in the ad — the law does not impose a strict-liability standard on advertisers unaware their creative vendor used one.

Which ads does the law cover, and which are exempt?

New York’s synthetic performer law covers advertising and promotional material generally, but exempts expressive works whose synthetic performer use is consistent with the underlying work, and excludes audio-only ads entirely since the statute targets visual and audiovisual performances.

Ad type	Covered?	Why
Standalone video ad with a fully AI-generated spokesperson	Covered	Squarely a synthetic performer in advertising material.
Movie, show, or game trailer using its own synthetic character consistently	Exempt	Expressive-works carve-out applies when use matches the underlying work.
That same synthetic character repurposed into a standalone paid ad	Covered	Repurposed use is evaluated against the ad itself, not the exemption.
Audio-only ad read by a synthetic voice	Not covered by this statute	Law targets visual/audiovisual performers; FTC rules can still apply.

Campaign teams that repackage trailer or game footage into paid social ads are the most common place this distinction gets missed — the expressive-works exemption is conditional, not blanket, per Skadden’s client alert on the law.

What are the penalties for non-compliance?

N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 396-b sets civil penalties at $1,000 for a first violation and $5,000 for each subsequent violation. These statutory amounts are modest next to FTC exposure, but reputational damage from a “brand got caught not disclosing AI actors” story typically costs a consumer brand far more than either penalty tier.

Per Manatt, Phelps & Phillips’ client alert, the penalty structure mirrors other New York consumer protection statutes: a low first-violation floor designed to encourage self-correction, paired with an escalating repeat penalty meant to deter advertisers who treat the first fine as a cost of doing business.

How does this law interact with existing FTC endorsement rules?

New York’s synthetic performer law stacks on top of federal FTC rules rather than replacing them: the Endorsement Guides require honest, real endorsements, and the FTC’s fake-reviews rule separately bans AI-generated content posing as a genuine human testimonial.

The FTC’s Endorsement Guides (16 CFR Part 255), most recently revised in 2023, require that an endorsement reflect the honest opinion of a real endorser with a clearly disclosed material connection to the brand — a standard an AI-generated performer with no real experience of the product cannot satisfy on its face. Separately, the FTC’s fake-reviews rule, announced August 2024, bans reviews and testimonials that misrepresent themselves as coming from a real person who does not exist. The FTC has already enforced this: in December 2024 it finalized a consent order against Rytr, an AI writing tool marketed for mass-generating fabricated product reviews, barring the company from offering any AI review-generation service going forward.

A brand running an undisclosed AI spokesperson in a New York-facing ad risks a state penalty; a brand letting AI-generated content pass as a genuine, experience-based endorsement risks FTC exposure under both frameworks — regardless of which state the audience sits in.

Does this apply only to New York, or should national brands care?

New York’s synthetic performer law directly reaches only ads served to New York consumers, but few national creator programs are geo-fenced by state, and New York’s own announcement frames the statute as a template other states may adopt next.

Brands running always-on, multi-state creator programs are better served treating New York’s rule as a national floor for AI-performer disclosure, the same posture the industry already takes with New York’s, Illinois’s, California’s, Minnesota’s, and Utah’s child-influencer trust-account laws covered in Storika’s kidfluencer compliance guide: track the strictest applicable state requirement rather than segmenting compliance by geography.

How does this differ from Storika’s other AI and compliance guides?

Synthetic performer disclosure is a distinct compliance surface from AI likeness rights and kidfluencer compliance: this rule addresses a brand’s duty to disclose a fully synthetic, non-human-derived AI performer, not the protection of a real person’s likeness or a child performer’s trust account.

AI likeness rights — Storika’s AI likeness rights guide covers protecting a real creator’s own voice or face from unauthorized AI replication under the proposed NO FAKES Act — a creator-protection issue, not a disclosure duty.
Kidfluencer compliance — Storika’s kidfluencer compliance guide and FTC/kidfluencer law 2026 guide cover child-performer trust-account and COPPA obligations — a different regulated population entirely.
This guide — Covers a brand's own disclosure obligation when the performer in an ad is not a real person at all — a fully synthetic, AI-generated figure.

What is a practical compliance checklist for 2026 creator campaigns?

A seven-step checklist closes most of the operational gap: tag every asset at creation, route synthetic-performer assets through a disclosure step, separate the two disclosure obligations, ban fabricated AI testimonials, default to the strictest jurisdiction, keep a decision record, and test disclosure placement against the FTC’s clarity standard.

Tag every asset at creation, not at publish time — Record whether it contains a synthetic performer under New York's definition, an AI-modified real performer, or only a real, unmodified human creator.
Route synthetic-performer assets through a disclosure step before scheduling — A conspicuous, on-screen or in-copy disclosure, not buried in a caption or terms page.
Separate the two disclosure obligations on any dual-flagged asset — Material-connection disclosure (FTC) and synthetic-performer disclosure (New York and any future state equivalents) are not interchangeable — one ad may need both.
Treat AI-generated testimonials or reviews as a hard no — Absent a real reviewer's real experience, given the FTC's active enforcement in this exact area following the Rytr consent order.
Default to the strictest applicable jurisdiction — For any campaign that isn't tightly geo-fenced, the same way multi-state kidfluencer compliance is already handled.
Keep a record, per asset, of the disclosure decision and who approved it — The artifact that actually proves compliance if a claim is challenged, not a policy document nobody checked against the finished creative.
Test placement against the FTC's clear-and-conspicuous standard — A disclosure that is technically in the frame but small, low-contrast, or on screen briefly has repeatedly failed FTC scrutiny in other endorsement contexts.

Where does Storika fit?

Most creator campaign workflows track creator identity, usage rights, and content approval status, but stop short of a queryable field for whether an asset contains a synthetic performer and whether the required disclosure was added before the asset shipped — the operational gap New York’s law exposes.

Storika’s usage-rights tracking and compliance workflow already attach a structured record to every asset moving through a campaign. A synthetic-performer flag is one more field on that same evidence record — who tagged it, what disclosure was added, when — not a separate system a team has to stand up from scratch. That is the same pattern Storika applies across every disclosure requirement covered in its compliance guides: know the rule, tag the content, prove the disclosure happened, before the asset ships, not after a complaint arrives.

Frequently asked questions

Does an AI-generated voiceover with no visual performer need to be disclosed under this law?

No. Audio-only advertisements are excluded from New York's synthetic-performer disclosure requirement specifically. Other disclosure rules, like the FTC's material-connection requirements, can still apply to that same audio ad regardless of this exclusion.

Does this law cover a real creator whose video was edited with AI tools?

No. New York's synthetic-performer statute targets performers who are not recognizable as any identifiable natural person. A real creator whose footage was AI-edited is a different fact pattern, governed by New York's separate digital-replica provisions instead.

What are the penalties for non-compliance with New York's synthetic performer law?

N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 396-b sets civil penalties at $1,000 for a first violation and $5,000 for each subsequent violation. Reputational damage from an undisclosed AI performer typically exceeds these statutory amounts for most consumer brands.

Is a virtual brand mascot covered by the synthetic performer law?

A virtual mascot styled to look like a real human performer can fall inside the law's definition, while a clearly stylized or animated character typically does not. The safer default for any human-presenting AI figure in an ad is disclosure.

Do brands outside New York need to comply with this law?

Only ads reaching New York consumers are directly covered by this statute. Most national creator programs are not geo-fenced by state, and New York's own announcement frames the law as a template other states may adopt next.

Sources

Governor Hochul Announces First-in-the-Nation Law Requiring Disclosure When Advertisements Include AI-Generated Synthetic Performers Is in Effect — New York State, official press release (confirms the June 9, 2026 effective date and N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 396-b)
New York’s Synthetic Performer Disclosure Law: What Advertisers Need to Know — McDermott Will & Emery, legal alert
Two Newly Enacted New York Laws Will Regulate Certain AI-Generated Images — Skadden, client alert (January 2026)
New York Synthetic Performer Law: What Advertisers Need to Know — Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, client alert
Federal Trade Commission Announces Final Rule Banning Fake Reviews and Testimonials — FTC.gov, official press release (August 2024)
FTC Approves Final Order Against Rytr, Seller of an AI “Testimonial & Review” Service — FTC.gov, official press release (December 2024)
Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, 16 CFR Part 255 — FTC’s Endorsement Guides, base federal disclosure framework