California Generative AI Training Data Transparency Act (AB 2013)

In short

From 1 January 2026, anyone who develops a generative AI system available to people in California must post a high-level summary of its training data on their website. The summary covers about a dozen points: dataset sources or owners, purpose, number and types of data points, whether copyrighted, licensed or personal information is included, cleaning steps, collection periods and synthetic data. It reaches back to systems released since January 2022, with narrow carve-outs for security, aviation and national-security systems. xAI has challenged the law in court.

Key dates

1. Sep 28, 2024✓Signed by Governor Newsom
2. Jan 1, 2026✓In effect for generative AI systems released since 1 January 2022

What you have to do

• Publish a training-data summary on your website before releasing or materially updating a generative AI system for Californians.
• Cover every required element: dataset sources/owners, purpose, size, data types, IP and licensing status, personal data, cleaning, collection dates, synthetic data.
• Keep the summary current for each new version or release.
• Ask upstream model providers for their summaries if you fine-tune or wrap their models.

Penalties

The statute sets no specific fine. It is reported as enforceable by the Attorney General under California's Unfair Competition Law, which allows civil penalties of up to $2,500 per violation.

Related lessons

• Level 1The world map of AI rules: EU, US patchwork, Canada, standards8 min
• Level 2Data and privacy basics for AI7 min
• Level 2Transparency and disclosure: telling people AI is involved7 min

Industries where it matters

• 📣 Marketing, media & customer-facing AI