NY A06491

Creates a new class E felony for creating and disseminating fabricated photographic, videographic, or audio records (including deepfakes and AI-generated content) within 60 days of an election with intent to injure a candidate or unduly influence the election outcome

Defines "synthetic media" as content that appears indistinguishable from reality, is manipulated or artificially created using technologies like deepfakes, generative pre-trained transformers, or stable diffusion, and depicts events that did not occur or were significantly altered

Exempts synthetic media created for political/social commentary, parody, or artistic expression when not intended to misrepresent authenticity

Exempts news reporting uses, content where all depicted persons gave consent, situations involving protection from serious bodily injury or death, and initial platform distribution when not created by affiliated individuals

Takes effect 30 days after becoming law