WHAT THIS BILL REGULATES · 1 REQUIREMENT TYPE
How Is This Bill Enforced
Verbatim statutory text on the left; plain-language analysis and a per-section checklist on the right. Numbered markers cross-link to the matching checklist row.
(1)–(9) § 338. Definitions. The following terms, whenever used or referred to in this article, shall have the following meanings: 1. "Artificial intelligenceArtificial intelligence"Artificial intelligence" means a machine-based system that can, for a given set of human-defined objectives, make predictions, recommendations, or decisions influencing real or virtual environments, and that uses machine and human-based inputs to perceive real and virtual environments, abstract such perceptions into models through analysis in an automated manner, and use model inference to formulate options for information or action.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(1)" means a machine-based system that can, for a given set of human-defined objectives, make predictions, recommendations, or decisions influencing real or virtual environments, and that uses machine and human-based inputs to perceive real and virtual environments, abstract such perceptions into models through analysis in an automated manner, and use model inference to formulate options for information or action. 2. "AccessAccess"Access" means to obtain, retrieve, acquire, reproduce, crawl, index, or request and receive a transmission of content.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(2)" means to obtain, retrieve, acquire, reproduce, crawl, index, or request and receive a transmission of content. 3. "Covered publicationCovered publication"Covered publication" means any print, broadcast, broadcast network or digital publication or service which: a. performs a public-information function comparable to that traditionally served by journalism organizations, such as newspapers, broadcast news operations, broadcast network news operations, magazines and other periodical publications; b. invests substantial expenditure of labor, skill, and money to create, edit, produce, and distribute content including by engaging natural persons to create, edit, produce, and distribute original text, audio, photo, illustrative, or video content concerning matters or topics of interest or use to members of the public through activities such as observation, video recording events, interviews, research, testing, and analysis; and c. publishes new content or updates its content on at least a monthly basis and has a process for error correction and clarification.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(3)" means any print, broadcast, broadcast network or digital publication or service which: a. performs a public-information function comparable to that traditionally served by journalism organizations, such as newspapers, broadcast news operations, broadcast network news operations, magazines and other periodical publications; b. invests substantial expenditure of labor, skill, and money to create, edit, produce, and distribute content including by engaging natural personsPerson"Person" means a natural person, corporation, trust, estate, partnership, incorporated or unincorporated association or any other legal entity.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(8) to create, edit, produce, and distribute original text, audio, photo, illustrative, or video content concerning matters or topics of interest or use to members of the public through activities such as observation, video recording events, interviews, research, testing, and analysis; and c. publishes new content or updates its content on at least a monthly basis and has a process for error correction and clarification. 4. "CrawlerCrawler"Crawler" means software that accesses content from a website or other internet source, such as an online crawler, spider, fetcher, client, bot, user agent or equivalent tool.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(4)" means software that accessesAccess"Access" means to obtain, retrieve, acquire, reproduce, crawl, index, or request and receive a transmission of content.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(2) content from a website or other internet source, such as an online crawlerCrawler"Crawler" means software that accesses content from a website or other internet source, such as an online crawler, spider, fetcher, client, bot, user agent or equivalent tool.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(4), spider, fetcher, client, bot, user agent or equivalent tool. 5. "DeveloperDeveloper"Developer" means a person that designs, codes, produces, or substantially modifies an artificial intelligence system or service for use by members of the public. The term "developer" shall not include a journalism provider that uses, develops or obtains artificial intelligence systems solely for internal use.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(5)" means a personPerson"Person" means a natural person, corporation, trust, estate, partnership, incorporated or unincorporated association or any other legal entity.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(8) that designs, codes, produces, or substantially modifies an artificial intelligenceArtificial intelligence"Artificial intelligence" means a machine-based system that can, for a given set of human-defined objectives, make predictions, recommendations, or decisions influencing real or virtual environments, and that uses machine and human-based inputs to perceive real and virtual environments, abstract such perceptions into models through analysis in an automated manner, and use model inference to formulate options for information or action.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(1) system or service for use by members of the public. The term "developerDeveloper"Developer" means a person that designs, codes, produces, or substantially modifies an artificial intelligence system or service for use by members of the public. The term "developer" shall not include a journalism provider that uses, develops or obtains artificial intelligence systems solely for internal use.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(5)" shall not include a journalism providerJournalism provider"Journalism provider" means any person that broadcasts or publishes one or more covered publications.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(7) that uses, develops or obtains artificial intelligenceArtificial intelligence"Artificial intelligence" means a machine-based system that can, for a given set of human-defined objectives, make predictions, recommendations, or decisions influencing real or virtual environments, and that uses machine and human-based inputs to perceive real and virtual environments, abstract such perceptions into models through analysis in an automated manner, and use model inference to formulate options for information or action.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(1) systems solely for internal use. 6. "Generative artificial intelligenceGenerative artificial intelligence"Generative artificial intelligence" means a class of artificial intelligence models that emulate the structure and characteristics of input data to generate derived synthetic content, including, but not limited to, images, videos, audio, text, and other digital content.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(6)" means a class of artificial intelligenceArtificial intelligence"Artificial intelligence" means a machine-based system that can, for a given set of human-defined objectives, make predictions, recommendations, or decisions influencing real or virtual environments, and that uses machine and human-based inputs to perceive real and virtual environments, abstract such perceptions into models through analysis in an automated manner, and use model inference to formulate options for information or action.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(1) models that emulate the structure and characteristics of input data to generate derived synthetic content, including, but not limited to, images, videos, audio, text, and other digital content. 7. "Journalism providerJournalism provider"Journalism provider" means any person that broadcasts or publishes one or more covered publications.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(7)" means any personPerson"Person" means a natural person, corporation, trust, estate, partnership, incorporated or unincorporated association or any other legal entity.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(8) that broadcasts or publishes one or more covered publicationsCovered publication"Covered publication" means any print, broadcast, broadcast network or digital publication or service which: a. performs a public-information function comparable to that traditionally served by journalism organizations, such as newspapers, broadcast news operations, broadcast network news operations, magazines and other periodical publications; b. invests substantial expenditure of labor, skill, and money to create, edit, produce, and distribute content including by engaging natural persons to create, edit, produce, and distribute original text, audio, photo, illustrative, or video content concerning matters or topics of interest or use to members of the public through activities such as observation, video recording events, interviews, research, testing, and analysis; and c. publishes new content or updates its content on at least a monthly basis and has a process for error correction and clarification.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(3). 8. "PersonPerson"Person" means a natural person, corporation, trust, estate, partnership, incorporated or unincorporated association or any other legal entity.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(8)" means a natural personPerson"Person" means a natural person, corporation, trust, estate, partnership, incorporated or unincorporated association or any other legal entity.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(8), corporation, trust, estate, partnership, incorporated or unincorporated association or any other legal entity. 9. "Artificial intelligence utilizationArtificial intelligence utilization"Artificial intelligence utilization" means to use digital content as data to develop the capabilities of a generative artificial intelligence system, including through setting or changing its learnable weights and other parameters, and includes, in addition to the initial dataset training, further testing, validating, grounding, or fine tuning by the developer of the artificial intelligence system or service.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(9)" means to use digital content as data to develop the capabilities of a generative artificial intelligenceGenerative artificial intelligence"Generative artificial intelligence" means a class of artificial intelligence models that emulate the structure and characteristics of input data to generate derived synthetic content, including, but not limited to, images, videos, audio, text, and other digital content.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(6) system, including through setting or changing its learnable weights and other parameters, and includes, in addition to the initial dataset training, further testing, validating, grounding, or fine tuning by the developer of the artificial intelligenceArtificial intelligence"Artificial intelligence" means a machine-based system that can, for a given set of human-defined objectives, make predictions, recommendations, or decisions influencing real or virtual environments, and that uses machine and human-based inputs to perceive real and virtual environments, abstract such perceptions into models through analysis in an automated manner, and use model inference to formulate options for information or action.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(1) system or service.
Section 338 establishes the defined terms used throughout the bill. Key terms include covered publication, which is scoped to journalism organizations that perform a public-information function, invest substantial resources in original content creation, and publish or update at least monthly with an error correction process. The definition of developer expressly excludes journalism providers using AI solely for internal purposes. Artificial intelligence utilization is defined broadly to encompass not only initial training but also testing, validating, grounding, and fine tuning.
1(a) 1 On or before January first, two thousand twenty-seven and before each time thereafter that a generative artificial intelligenceGenerative artificial intelligence"Generative artificial intelligence" means a class of artificial intelligence models that emulate the structure and characteristics of input data to generate derived synthetic content, including, but not limited to, images, videos, audio, text, and other digital content.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(6) system or service, or a substantial modification to a generative artificial intelligenceGenerative artificial intelligence"Generative artificial intelligence" means a class of artificial intelligence models that emulate the structure and characteristics of input data to generate derived synthetic content, including, but not limited to, images, videos, audio, text, and other digital content.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(6) system or service released on or after January first, two thousand twenty-two, is made publicly available to New Yorkers for use, regardless of whether the system or service is made available for a fee, the developer of the system or service shall post on the developerDeveloper"Developer" means a person that designs, codes, produces, or substantially modifies an artificial intelligence system or service for use by members of the public. The term "developer" shall not include a journalism provider that uses, develops or obtains artificial intelligence systems solely for internal use.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(5)'s internet website the following information regarding video, audio, text and data from a covered publicationCovered publication"Covered publication" means any print, broadcast, broadcast network or digital publication or service which: a. performs a public-information function comparable to that traditionally served by journalism organizations, such as newspapers, broadcast news operations, broadcast network news operations, magazines and other periodical publications; b. invests substantial expenditure of labor, skill, and money to create, edit, produce, and distribute content including by engaging natural persons to create, edit, produce, and distribute original text, audio, photo, illustrative, or video content concerning matters or topics of interest or use to members of the public through activities such as observation, video recording events, interviews, research, testing, and analysis; and c. publishes new content or updates its content on at least a monthly basis and has a process for error correction and clarification.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(3) used to train the generative artificial intelligenceGenerative artificial intelligence"Generative artificial intelligence" means a class of artificial intelligence models that emulate the structure and characteristics of input data to generate derived synthetic content, including, but not limited to, images, videos, audio, text, and other digital content.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(6) system or service: (i) the uniform resource locators or uniform resource identifiers accessed by crawlersCrawler"Crawler" means software that accesses content from a website or other internet source, such as an online crawler, spider, fetcher, client, bot, user agent or equivalent tool.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(4) deployed by the developerDeveloper"Developer" means a person that designs, codes, produces, or substantially modifies an artificial intelligence system or service for use by members of the public. The term "developer" shall not include a journalism provider that uses, develops or obtains artificial intelligence systems solely for internal use.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(5) or by third parties on their behalf or from whom they have obtained video, audio, text or data; (ii) a detailed description of the video, audio, text and data from a covered publicationCovered publication"Covered publication" means any print, broadcast, broadcast network or digital publication or service which: a. performs a public-information function comparable to that traditionally served by journalism organizations, such as newspapers, broadcast news operations, broadcast network news operations, magazines and other periodical publications; b. invests substantial expenditure of labor, skill, and money to create, edit, produce, and distribute content including by engaging natural persons to create, edit, produce, and distribute original text, audio, photo, illustrative, or video content concerning matters or topics of interest or use to members of the public through activities such as observation, video recording events, interviews, research, testing, and analysis; and c. publishes new content or updates its content on at least a monthly basis and has a process for error correction and clarification.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(3) used for artificial intelligence utilizationArtificial intelligence utilization"Artificial intelligence utilization" means to use digital content as data to develop the capabilities of a generative artificial intelligence system, including through setting or changing its learnable weights and other parameters, and includes, in addition to the initial dataset training, further testing, validating, grounding, or fine tuning by the developer of the artificial intelligence system or service.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(9), including the type and provenance of the video, audio, text and data and the means by which it was obtained, sufficient to identify individual works; (iii) whether any source identifiers, terms, or copyright notices were removed from the video, audio, text or data; and (iv) the timeframe of data collection.
1(b) 1 The information required to be posted on a developerDeveloper"Developer" means a person that designs, codes, produces, or substantially modifies an artificial intelligence system or service for use by members of the public. The term "developer" shall not include a journalism provider that uses, develops or obtains artificial intelligence systems solely for internal use.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(5)'s internet website pursuant to paragraph a of this subdivision shall not be required where there is an express written agreement authorizing the developerDeveloper"Developer" means a person that designs, codes, produces, or substantially modifies an artificial intelligence system or service for use by members of the public. The term "developer" shall not include a journalism provider that uses, develops or obtains artificial intelligence systems solely for internal use.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(5) to accessAccess"Access" means to obtain, retrieve, acquire, reproduce, crawl, index, or request and receive a transmission of content.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(2) the journalism providerJournalism provider"Journalism provider" means any person that broadcasts or publishes one or more covered publications.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(7)'s content and the parties agree not to post information relating to the journalism providerJournalism provider"Journalism provider" means any person that broadcasts or publishes one or more covered publications.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(7)'s content on the developerDeveloper"Developer" means a person that designs, codes, produces, or substantially modifies an artificial intelligence system or service for use by members of the public. The term "developer" shall not include a journalism provider that uses, develops or obtains artificial intelligence systems solely for internal use.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(5)'s website.
2(a) 2 On or before January first, two thousand twenty-seven, the developer of a generative artificial intelligenceGenerative artificial intelligence"Generative artificial intelligence" means a class of artificial intelligence models that emulate the structure and characteristics of input data to generate derived synthetic content, including, but not limited to, images, videos, audio, text, and other digital content.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(6) system or service who deploys a crawlerCrawler"Crawler" means software that accesses content from a website or other internet source, such as an online crawler, spider, fetcher, client, bot, user agent or equivalent tool.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(4), either directly or through a third party, in connection with such system or service shall disclose information regarding the identity of crawlersCrawler"Crawler" means software that accesses content from a website or other internet source, such as an online crawler, spider, fetcher, client, bot, user agent or equivalent tool.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(4) used by the developerDeveloper"Developer" means a person that designs, codes, produces, or substantially modifies an artificial intelligence system or service for use by members of the public. The term "developer" shall not include a journalism provider that uses, develops or obtains artificial intelligence systems solely for internal use.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(5) or by third parties on the developerDeveloper"Developer" means a person that designs, codes, produces, or substantially modifies an artificial intelligence system or service for use by members of the public. The term "developer" shall not include a journalism provider that uses, develops or obtains artificial intelligence systems solely for internal use.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(5)'s behalf in a manner clearly accessible by a website operator, including but not limited to: (i) the name of the crawlerCrawler"Crawler" means software that accesses content from a website or other internet source, such as an online crawler, spider, fetcher, client, bot, user agent or equivalent tool.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(4) including the crawlerCrawler"Crawler" means software that accesses content from a website or other internet source, such as an online crawler, spider, fetcher, client, bot, user agent or equivalent tool.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(4)'s IP address, and specific identifier actually used by the crawlerCrawler"Crawler" means software that accesses content from a website or other internet source, such as an online crawler, spider, fetcher, client, bot, user agent or equivalent tool.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(4) when conducting the crawling activity (such as including the identifiers as part of the user agent or other part of the request headers); (ii) the legal entity responsible for the crawlerCrawler"Crawler" means software that accesses content from a website or other internet source, such as an online crawler, spider, fetcher, client, bot, user agent or equivalent tool.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(4); (iii) the specific purposes for which each crawlerCrawler"Crawler" means software that accesses content from a website or other internet source, such as an online crawler, spider, fetcher, client, bot, user agent or equivalent tool.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(4) is used; (iv) the legal entities to which operators provide data scraped by the crawlersCrawler"Crawler" means software that accesses content from a website or other internet source, such as an online crawler, spider, fetcher, client, bot, user agent or equivalent tool.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(4) they operate; and (v) a single point of contact to enable third parties whose websites are accessed by such crawlersCrawler"Crawler" means software that accesses content from a website or other internet source, such as an online crawler, spider, fetcher, client, bot, user agent or equivalent tool.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(4) to communicate with the developerDeveloper"Developer" means a person that designs, codes, produces, or substantially modifies an artificial intelligence system or service for use by members of the public. The term "developer" shall not include a journalism provider that uses, develops or obtains artificial intelligence systems solely for internal use.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(5) and to lodge complaints.
2(b) 2 The information disclosed pursuant to paragraph a of this subdivision shall be available on an easily accessible platform and updated at the same time as any change is made to such information.
2(c) 3 The exclusion of a crawlerCrawler"Crawler" means software that accesses content from a website or other internet source, such as an online crawler, spider, fetcher, client, bot, user agent or equivalent tool.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(4) by a website operator shall not negatively impact the findability of the website operator's content in a search engine.
Section 338-a is the bill's operative section, imposing two distinct transparency obligations on developers of generative AI systems. The first requires developers to post on their website detailed information about journalism content used for AI utilization — including URLs accessed, content descriptions sufficient to identify individual works, whether source identifiers or copyright notices were removed, and data collection timeframes. This disclosure must be made by January 1, 2027, and before each subsequent public release or substantial modification of systems released on or after January 1, 2022. A carve-out applies where a developer has an express written agreement with a journalism provider authorizing content access and both parties agree not to post the information.
The second obligation requires developers deploying crawlers to disclose detailed crawler identity information — name, IP address, user-agent identifiers, responsible legal entity, purposes, downstream data recipients, and a single point of contact for complaints. This information must be made available on an easily accessible platform and kept current. Notably, subdivision 2(c) prohibits developers from retaliating against website operators who exclude crawlers by degrading their content's search engine findability.
(1) A journalism providerJournalism provider"Journalism provider" means any person that broadcasts or publishes one or more covered publications.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(7), or a personPerson"Person" means a natural person, corporation, trust, estate, partnership, incorporated or unincorporated association or any other legal entity.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(8) authorized to act on a journalism providerJournalism provider"Journalism provider" means any person that broadcasts or publishes one or more covered publications.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(7)'s behalf, may bring an action in the supreme court for statutory damages or injunctive relief to compel a developerDeveloper"Developer" means a person that designs, codes, produces, or substantially modifies an artificial intelligence system or service for use by members of the public. The term "developer" shall not include a journalism provider that uses, develops or obtains artificial intelligence systems solely for internal use.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(5) to comply with section three hundred thirty-eight-a of this article. If the court finds that the developer of a generative artificial intelligenceGenerative artificial intelligence"Generative artificial intelligence" means a class of artificial intelligence models that emulate the structure and characteristics of input data to generate derived synthetic content, including, but not limited to, images, videos, audio, text, and other digital content.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(6) system that is made available to New Yorkers for use is not in compliance, the court shall order such compliance and may impose statutory damages to the journalism provider of up to ten thousand dollars for each violation.
(2) Consistent with the New York laws of civil procedure, the supreme court may issue an order for disclosure of copies of, or records sufficient to identify with certainty, the text and data used to train the generative artificial intelligenceGenerative artificial intelligence"Generative artificial intelligence" means a class of artificial intelligence models that emulate the structure and characteristics of input data to generate derived synthetic content, including, but not limited to, images, videos, audio, text, and other digital content.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(6) system or service insofar as such text and data pertains to the journalism providerJournalism provider"Journalism provider" means any person that broadcasts or publishes one or more covered publications.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(7)'s internet website, broadcasts, podcasts or other digital platforms, including but not limited to: a. the uniform resource locators accessed by crawlersCrawler"Crawler" means software that accesses content from a website or other internet source, such as an online crawler, spider, fetcher, client, bot, user agent or equivalent tool.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(4) deployed by developersDeveloper"Developer" means a person that designs, codes, produces, or substantially modifies an artificial intelligence system or service for use by members of the public. The term "developer" shall not include a journalism provider that uses, develops or obtains artificial intelligence systems solely for internal use.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(5) or by third parties on their behalf or from whom they have obtained text, video, audio or data, and dates and times of collection; and b. the text and data used for artificial intelligence utilizationArtificial intelligence utilization"Artificial intelligence utilization" means to use digital content as data to develop the capabilities of a generative artificial intelligence system, including through setting or changing its learnable weights and other parameters, and includes, in addition to the initial dataset training, further testing, validating, grounding, or fine tuning by the developer of the artificial intelligence system or service.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(9), including the type and provenance of the text and data and the means by which such text and data was obtained and when.
Section 338-b establishes the enforcement mechanism: a private right of action available to journalism providers or their authorized representatives. An action may be brought in supreme court for statutory damages of up to $10,000 per violation or injunctive relief to compel compliance with the transparency obligations in § 338-a. The court is required to order compliance upon finding a violation and has discretion on statutory damages. Subdivision 2 authorizes the court to order discovery of training data records pertaining to the journalism provider's content, including URLs accessed with dates and times, and the text and data used for AI utilization with provenance details. This discovery provision effectively gives journalism providers a litigation tool to determine whether their content was used without disclosure.
The provisions of this article shall not be construed to modify, impair, expand, or in any way alter rights pertaining to Title 17 of the United States Code or the Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. 1051 et seq.).
Section 338-c is a savings clause preserving federal intellectual property rights. It states that the article shall not be construed to modify, impair, expand, or alter rights under Title 17 of the United States Code (federal copyright law) or the Lanham Act (federal trademark law). This provision is designed to cabin the bill's reach as a transparency mandate rather than a substitute for or expansion of federal IP enforcement, though it does not resolve potential preemption questions that may arise from overlap with the Copyright Act's subject matter.
If any provision of this article or the application thereof to any personPerson"Person" means a natural person, corporation, trust, estate, partnership, incorporated or unincorporated association or any other legal entity.Gen. Bus. Law § 338(8) or circumstances is held to be invalid, such invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications of this article which can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this end the provisions of this article are severable.
Standard severability clause providing that if any provision is held invalid, the remaining provisions continue in effect.