Pennsylvania has become the latest state to require businesses to disclose when their advertising was made or substantially altered by artificial intelligence. The rule covers everything from national TV spots to the flyer taped to a pizza shop's front door.
Governor Josh Shapiro signed the Artificial Intelligence Deceptive Advertising Act this week. The law requires any advertisement — image, video, audio, or text — that has been significantly modified or generated by AI to carry a disclosure label in the same format as the ad itself. A video ad needs a visible or audible label; a text ad needs a written one. The law doesn't carve out an exemption for small businesses or low-budget marketing, meaning a local contractor using an AI tool to generate a Facebook ad is technically on the hook the same as a national brand running a Super Bowl commercial.
The statute targets ads that have been significantly modified, a phrase that leaves room for interpretation. A business that uses AI to write ad copy, touch up a product photo, or generate a voiceover could fall under the law depending on how regulators and courts eventually define significant. Enforcement details, including who polices compliance and what penalties apply, will likely get clarified through state regulatory guidance in the months ahead.
Pennsylvania isn't acting alone. California, Colorado, and a handful of other states have passed or proposed similar disclosure requirements over the past two years, mostly aimed at AI-generated political ads, deepfakes, or synthetic media used in elections. Pennsylvania's law is broader, applying to commercial advertising generally rather than just political speech, which puts it closer to a consumer-protection law than an election-integrity measure.
This fits a wider pattern: with Congress still gridlocked on comprehensive AI legislation, states are writing their own rules piecemeal. Advertising disclosure, deepfake restrictions, and AI use in hiring have all become areas where state legislatures are moving faster than federal regulators. The result is a patchwork where the rules for using AI in a Pennsylvania ad campaign may differ from the rules in Ohio or Texas, a compliance headache that typically grows worse before it gets standardized.
For small business owners, the immediate concern isn't abstract. Many small businesses now rely on AI tools like Canva's AI features, ChatGPT for ad copy, or AI image generators for social posts and flyers, often without a lawyer reviewing the output. If a Pennsylvania business uses one of these tools to touch up a photo or write a headline, they may now need a disclosure label on that material, even if it was a five-minute edit rather than a fully AI-generated campaign.
The practical burden falls hardest on businesses that can't afford legal review before every ad goes out. Larger companies have compliance teams to interpret what counts as significantly modified; a solo restaurant owner printing flyers at a copy shop does not. Expect ambiguity here to persist until the state issues clearer guidance or a test case defines the line.
Businesses advertising in Pennsylvania should start documenting which marketing materials involved AI tools and to what extent, even informally, so they have a record if questions arise. It's also worth checking whether any ad platforms or templates used by the business already include AI disclosure options, since some tools may add this automatically going forward.
Watch for how Pennsylvania's attorney general or consumer protection office defines significantly modified in practice, since that interpretation will determine how much everyday AI-assisted marketing actually requires labeling. Also watch whether other states with large advertising markets, particularly New York or Texas, introduce similar bills, since that would push toward a more unified national standard rather than a state-by-state scramble.
The bottom line: businesses advertising in Pennsylvania that use AI tools for any part of their marketing, even minor edits, should review their materials now and expect clearer enforcement guidance in the coming months rather than waiting for a complaint to find out where the line is.