California's AI Transparency Act started on 2 August 2026. If your AI tool makes images, video or sound, has over a million users a month, and works in California, you have three things to build. Here is the full duty list.
1. A label people can see
A watermark on images. An overlay on video. A spoken tag on audio.
It has to be easy to notice. Small grey text in the corner will not pass. Build it as a real feature with a toggle, because users must be able to switch it on.
2. A tag people cannot see
A signed note inside the file that says what made it and when. It has to be very hard to strip out. The standard used here is C2PA.
One warning. Re-encoding kills these tags. Convert a PNG to JPEG in your export pipeline and the tag can disappear. Test every export path before you ship.
3. A free public checker
Anyone sends you a file. You say whether your AI made it, and return any origin info you find. Public endpoint, rate limited, no login, no fee.
Text-only output is not covered. Images, video and sound only.
What to build and what not to build
Build the watermarking. It touches your models and your pipeline.
Do not build a law tracker. That means someone reading bills, someone updating config, and someone remembering that AB 853 moved this date by seven months. Forever.
What Seers AI covers instead
- 150+ privacy laws, updating themselves when a law changes
- Cookie and script scanning, blocked until a visitor agrees
- Consent records and analytics, which is your proof if anyone asks
- Google Consent Mode v2, Microsoft Consent Mode, IAB TCF v2.2, Global Privacy Control
- One click install on WordPress, Shopify, Magento and Joomla
- 28+ languages, support at any hour
Check the Seers AI feature list and count how many of those you were about to build. 50,000+ sites already run it.
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