Negotiate The Future

                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          8595

                               2025-2026 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                      May 22, 2025
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  M. of A. OTIS -- read once and referred to the Committee
          on Science and Technology

        AN ACT to amend the general business law, in relation to requiring tran-
          sparency from generative artificial intelligence developers for  jour-
          nalism providers

          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the  "New  York
     2  artificial intelligence transparency for journalism act".
     3    §  2.  Legislative findings. The legislature hereby finds and declares
     4  that:
     5    (a) A free and diverse press was  critical  in  the  founding  of  our
     6  democracy and continues to be the lifeblood for a functional society;
     7    (b)  New  York has a compelling interest in protecting news publishers
     8  and broadcasters that report and distribute news  from  unfair  business
     9  practices and competition. Every day, journalism plays an essential role
    10  in  New  York  and  in  local communities, and the ability of local news
    11  organizations to continue to provide the public with  critical  informa-
    12  tion about their communities and enabling news publishers and broadcast-
    13  ers  to  receive  fair  market  value  for their content that is used by
    14  others will preserve and ensure the sustainability of local and  diverse
    15  news outlets;
    16    (c)  Communities  without  newspapers and broadcast news programs lose
    17  touch with government, business, education, and neighbors. They  operate
    18  without journalists working to keep them informed, uncover truth, expose
    19  corruption, and share common goals and experiences;
    20    (d) Quality journalism is key to sustaining civic society, strengthen-
    21  ing communal ties, and providing information at a deep level;
    22    (e)  Seventy-three  percent of United States adults surveyed said they
    23  have confidence in their local newspaper. Broadcasting remains  a  domi-
    24  nant and trusted source of news in communities throughout New York;

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD13206-01-5

        A. 8595                             2

     1    (f) Studies show that news content comprises a disproportionate amount
     2  of  generative  artificial  intelligence  training data. News content is
     3  especially valuable to artificial intelligence developers because it  is
     4  high-quality, professional writing created by human beings;
     5    (g) After training, generative artificial intelligence systems contin-
     6  ue  to  access news websites, podcasts, broadcasts and digital platforms
     7  in order gain access to fact-checked, accurate and up to date content to
     8  produce outputs;
     9    (h) The vast majority of generative artificial intelligence developers
    10  do not obtain permission or compensate news publishers or broadcast news
    11  operations  for  accessing  their  websites,  podcasts,  broadcasts  and
    12  digital  platforms  for  the  purposes  of building and operationalizing
    13  their AI tools and services, in violation of copyright law, those sites'
    14  and platforms' terms of service and  express  prohibitions  and  prefer-
    15  ences;
    16    (i)  Maximizing  the  potential of generative AI requires ensuring the
    17  sustainability of journalism and the news industry; and
    18    (j) News publishers, broadcast news operations and the public  deserve
    19  to know when generative artificial intelligence developers have accessed
    20  news websites and used their work.
    21    §  3.  Article  21-A of the general business law is renumbered article
    22  21-B and a new article 21-A is added to read as follows:
    23                                ARTICLE 21-A
    24              ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SOURCE DATA TRANSPARENCY
    25  Section 338.   Definitions.
    26          338-a. Artificial intelligence source data transparency.
    27          338-b. Enforcement.
    28          338-c. Applicability.
    29          338-d. Severability.
    30    § 338. Definitions. The following terms, whenever used or referred  to
    31  in this article, shall have the following meanings:
    32    1.  "Artificial  intelligence"  means a machine-based system that can,
    33  for a given set of human-defined objectives, make predictions, recommen-
    34  dations, or decisions influencing real or virtual environments, and that
    35  uses machine and human-based inputs to perceive real and  virtual  envi-
    36  ronments,  abstract  such perceptions into models through analysis in an
    37  automated manner, and use  model  inference  to  formulate  options  for
    38  information or action.
    39    2.  "Access"  means  to  obtain,  retrieve, acquire, reproduce, crawl,
    40  index, or request and receive a transmission of content.
    41    3. "Covered publication" means any print, broadcast, broadcast network
    42  or digital publication or service which:
    43    a. performs a public-information function comparable  to  that  tradi-
    44  tionally  served by journalism organizations, such as newspapers, broad-
    45  cast news operations, broadcast network news operations,  magazines  and
    46  other periodical publications;
    47    b.  invests  substantial  expenditure  of  labor,  skill, and money to
    48  create, edit, produce, and  distribute  content  including  by  engaging
    49  natural  persons to create, edit, produce, and distribute original text,
    50  audio, photo, illustrative,  or  video  content  concerning  matters  or
    51  topics  of  interest  or use to members of the public through activities
    52  such as observation, video recording events, interviews, research, test-
    53  ing, and analysis; and
    54    c. publishes new content or updates its content on at least a  monthly
    55  basis and has a process for error correction and clarification.

        A. 8595                             3

     1    4.  "Crawler"  means  software that accesses content from a website or
     2  other internet source, such  as  an  online  crawler,  spider,  fetcher,
     3  client, bot, user agent or equivalent tool.
     4    5.  "Developer"  means  a  person  that  designs,  codes, produces, or
     5  substantially modifies an artificial intelligence system or service  for
     6  use  by  members  of  the public. The term "developer" shall not include
     7  artificial intelligence systems used, developed or obtained by  a  jour-
     8  nalism provider for internal use.
     9    6.  "Generative  artificial  intelligence" means a class of artificial
    10  intelligence models that emulate the structure  and  characteristics  of
    11  input  data  to  generate  derived synthetic content, including, but not
    12  limited to, images, videos, audio, text, and other digital content.
    13    7. "Journalism provider" means any person that:
    14    a. broadcasts or publishes one or more covered publications; and
    15    b. is covered by media liability insurance.
    16    8. "Person" means a natural person, corporation, trust, estate,  part-
    17  nership,  incorporated  or unincorporated association or any other legal
    18  entity.
    19    9. "Artificial intelligence utilization" means to use digital  content
    20  as  data to develop the capabilities of a generative artificial intelli-
    21  gence system,  including  through  setting  or  changing  its  learnable
    22  weights  and  other parameters, and includes, in addition to the initial
    23  dataset training, further testing, validating, grounding, or fine tuning
    24  by the developer of the artificial intelligence system or service.
    25    § 338-a. Artificial intelligence source data transparency. 1. a. On or
    26  before January first, two thousand twenty-seven  and  before  each  time
    27  thereafter  that a generative artificial intelligence system or service,
    28  or a substantial modification to a  generative  artificial  intelligence
    29  system or service released on or after January first, two thousand twen-
    30  ty-two, is made publicly available to New Yorkers for use, regardless of
    31  whether the system or service is made available for a fee, the developer
    32  of  the system or service shall post on the developer's internet website
    33  the following information regarding video, audio, text and data  from  a
    34  covered publication used to train the generative artificial intelligence
    35  system or service:
    36    (i)  the  uniform  resource  locators  or uniform resource identifiers
    37  accessed by crawlers deployed by the developer or by  third  parties  on
    38  their behalf or from whom they have obtained video, audio, text or data;
    39    (ii)  a detailed description of the video, audio, text and data from a
    40  covered  publication  used  for  artificial  intelligence   utilization,
    41  including the type and provenance of the video, audio, text and data and
    42  the  means  by  which it was obtained, sufficient to identify individual
    43  works;
    44    (iii) whether any source identifiers, terms, or copyright notices were
    45  removed from the video, audio, text or data; and
    46    (iv) the timeframe of data collection.
    47    b. The information required to be posted  on  a  developer's  internet
    48  website  pursuant  to  paragraph  a  of  this  subdivision  shall not be
    49  required where there is an express  written  agreement  authorizing  the
    50  developer  to  access  the journalism provider's content and the parties
    51  agree not to post information  relating  to  the  journalism  provider's
    52  content on the developer's website.
    53    2.  a.  On  or  before  January  first, two thousand twenty-seven, the
    54  developer of a generative artificial intelligence system or service  who
    55  deploys  a  crawler,  either  directly  or  through  a  third  party, in
    56  connection with  such  system  or  service  shall  disclose  information

        A. 8595                             4

     1  regarding  the  identity  of  crawlers used by the developer or by third
     2  parties on the developer's behalf in a manner clearly  accessible  by  a
     3  website operator, including but not limited to:
     4    (i)  the  name  of the crawler including the crawler's IP address, and
     5  specific identifier actually used by the  crawler  when  conducting  the
     6  crawling activity (such as including the identifiers as part of the user
     7  agent or other part of the request headers);
     8    (ii) the legal entity responsible for the crawler;
     9    (iii) the specific purposes for which each crawler is used;
    10    (iv) the legal entities to which operators provide data scraped by the
    11  crawlers they operate; and
    12    (v)  a  single point of contact to enable third parties whose websites
    13  are accessed by such crawlers to communicate with the developer  and  to
    14  lodge complaints.
    15    b.  The information disclosed pursuant to paragraph a of this subdivi-
    16  sion shall be available on an easily accessible platform and updated  at
    17  the same time as any change is made to such information.
    18    c.  The  exclusion  of a crawler by a website operator shall not nega-
    19  tively impact the findability of the website  operator's  content  in  a
    20  search engine.
    21    § 338-b. Enforcement. 1. a. A journalism provider, or a person author-
    22  ized  to act on a journalism provider's behalf, may request the clerk of
    23  the supreme court, or a judge where  there  is  no  clerk,  to  issue  a
    24  subpoena  to  a developer of a generative artificial intelligence system
    25  that is made available to New Yorkers for use, regardless of whether the
    26  system or service is made available for a fee, for disclosure of  copies
    27  of,  or records sufficient to identify with certainty, the text and data
    28  used to train the generative artificial intelligence system  or  service
    29  insofar  as  such  text  and  data pertains to the journalism provider's
    30  internet website,  broadcasts,  podcasts  or  other  digital  platforms,
    31  including but not limited to:
    32    (i)  the  uniform  resource  locators accessed by crawlers deployed by
    33  developers or by third parties on their behalf or from  whom  they  have
    34  obtained  text, video, audio or data, and dates and times of collection;
    35  and
    36    (ii) the text and data used for artificial  intelligence  utilization,
    37  including  the type and provenance of the text and data and the means by
    38  which such text and data was obtained and when.
    39    b. A subpoena issued pursuant to paragraph a of this  subdivision  may
    40  require  disclosure  of the information required pursuant to paragraph a
    41  of this subdivision in the native form in  which  such  information  was
    42  copied  and  stored  (including all accompanying keys, values, tags, and
    43  the like, and any other available metadata), subject to entry of a suit-
    44  able protective order in the case that such  information  constitutes  a
    45  trade secret of the generative artificial intelligence system developer.
    46    c. The developer shall provide the subpoenaed information within thir-
    47  ty  days  of  service  of the subpoena or, in the case of trade secrets,
    48  entry of a suitable protective order. Such subpoena shall be subject  to
    49  the  provisions  of  article  twenty-three of the civil practice law and
    50  rules.  The court may impose a penalty for failure to  respond  to  such
    51  information  subpoenas pursuant to section twenty-three hundred eight of
    52  the civil practice law and rules.
    53    2. a. A journalism provider may bring an action in the  supreme  court
    54  for  an  injunction  to  compel a developer to comply with section three
    55  hundred thirty-eight-a of this article.

        A. 8595                             5

     1    b. If a developer fails to comply with a subpoena issued  pursuant  to
     2  subdivision one of this section, the journalism provider requesting such
     3  subpoena  may  move  in  the  supreme court to compel compliance. If the
     4  court finds that the developer did not comply  with  the  subpoena,  the
     5  court  shall  order  compliance  and may impose statutory damages to the
     6  journalism provider requesting such subpoena in the sum of not less than
     7  ten thousand dollars nor more than fifty thousand dollars for  each  day
     8  on which such noncompliance occurs or continues.
     9    c. If the developer fails to comply with a court order issued pursuant
    10  to  paragraph  b  of  this subdivision, then the journalism provider may
    11  request that the attorney general bring an action  on  their  behalf  to
    12  ensure  compliance  with  the  court  order  and  any  statutory damages
    13  assessed.
    14    § 338-c. Applicability. The provisions of this article  shall  not  be
    15  construed to modify, impair, expand, or in any way alter rights pertain-
    16  ing  to  Title 17 of the United States Code or the Lanham Act (15 U.S.C.
    17  1051 et seq.).
    18    § 338-d. Severability. If any provision of this article or the  appli-
    19  cation  thereof  to  any  person or circumstances is held to be invalid,
    20  such invalidity shall not affect other  provisions  or  applications  of
    21  this  article which can be given effect without the invalid provision or
    22  application, and to this end the provisions of this article are  severa-
    23  ble.
    24    § 4. This act shall take effect immediately.