Bill Text: NJ A5164 | 2024-2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Regulates artificial intelligence in news media industry; establishes "Artificial Intelligence In Communications Oversight Committee."
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2025-01-14 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Science, Innovation and Technology Committee [A5164 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2024-A5164-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman WILLIAM B. SAMPSON, IV
District 31 (Hudson)
Assemblyman REGINALD W. ATKINS
District 20 (Union)
SYNOPSIS
Regulates artificial intelligence in news media industry; establishes "Artificial Intelligence In Communications Oversight Committee."
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning artificial intelligence in the news media industry and supplementing Title 34 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. The Legislature finds and declares that:
a. Artificial intelligence presents enormous opportunities for breakthroughs in innovation, economic growth, education, and government service delivery that can significantly improve lives, but this rapidly developing technology may also create new risks and ethical dilemmas.
b. The use of information from news sources and professional journalists by artificial intelligence without appropriate credit or compensation represents a theft of intellectual property.
c. While artificial intelligence can pull information from a news source and generate content based on that data collection, it does not have the ability to engage in one-on-one investigative reporting like an actual journalist.
d. The importance of the journalism industry in providing well-sourced and researched information cannot be understated.
e. In October 2023, the Governor of New Jersey established the "Artificial Intelligence Task Force" to study the potential impacts of artificial intelligence on society and to prepare recommendations for government actions encouraging the ethical use of artificial intelligence technologies.
f. It is in the interest of New Jersey citizens for the State to take further action to regulate artificial intelligence, particularly in the news media industry, in order to protect journalistic integrity and the responsible dissemination of news.
2. a. There is established the Artificial Intelligence Task Force in the New Jersey Business Action Center established in the New Jersey Department of State pursuant to Reorganization Plan No. 003-2011. The purpose of the task force shall be to study the potential impacts of artificial intelligence on society, prepare recommendations for government actions encouraging the ethical use of artificial intelligence technologies, and any other purpose that the Secretary of State deems appropriate and relevant.
b. The Task Force shall consist of co-chairs who are representatives from the Office of Information Technology Chief Technology Officer, the Office of Innovation Chief Innovation Officer, and the Economic Development Authority Chief Executive Officer, as well as the following members: the Director of the Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging; Commissioner of Education; the Secretary of Higher Education; the Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development; the Director of the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness; and the Attorney General; or their designees. The Governor may, as determined to be appropriate, appoint additional members to the Task Force. All members of the Task Force shall serve at the pleasure of the Governor and without compensation.
c. Within the Artificial Intelligence Task Force, there is established the "Artificial Intelligence In Communications Oversight Committee" for the purpose of preserving and protecting the authorship and work of members of the media impacted by the use of artificial intelligence. The committees shall consist of the members of the task force, as well as three representatives of news media entities and two professional journalists, each to be designated by the Governor. The committee's duties shall include:
(1) crafting and recommending regulations and guidelines for artificial intelligence in the media field;
(2) exploring whether artificial intelligence has replaced human journalists in any capacity in New Jersey;
(3) studying wages and work standards as to any impact of artificial intelligence in the news media workforce;
(4) examining the large-scale monitoring and data collection of artificial intelligence, potentially for the purpose of manipulating opinions and choices; and
(5) on an annual basis, preparing and submitting a report to the Governor and, pursuant to section 2 of P.L.1991, c.164 (C.52:14-19.1), to the Legislature regarding the committee's findings.
d. The Secretary of State shall promulgate rules and regulations to effectuate the purposes of this section.
3. a. Any news media or other entity disseminating news or purporting to disseminate news within the State may permit the use of artificial intelligence to assist its professionals and staff in investigating, researching, and reporting information, but shall be prohibited from using artificial intelligence in lieu of professionals and staff.
b. Any news media or other entity disseminating news or purporting to disseminate news within the State that uses generative AI content, regardless of what entity or mechanism produced it, shall disclose the following:
(1) a prominently displayed label indicating that the content is generative AI;
(2) credit to any source used to produce the content; and
(3) a disclaimer that the content may not accurately reflect the source material from which it was produced.
c. Any person who reasonably believes that an entity is using artificial intelligence in violation of subsection a. or b. of this section may report the suspected violation to the Attorney General.
d. Any entity that violates the provisions of this act shall be subject to a civil penalty of $10,000 for the first violation; $20,000 for the second violation; and $30,000 for the third and any subsequent violation, collectible by the Attorney General in a summary proceeding pursuant to the "Penalty Enforcement Law of 1999," P.L.1999, c.274 (C.2A:58-10 et seq.). For the purposes of this section, each:
(1) instance of a news media or other entity using AI in lieu or professionals or staff shall constitute a separate and distinct violation; and
(2) each piece of content produced by generative AI that fails to meet the requirements of subsection b. of this section shall constitute a separate and distinct violation.
e. As used in this section:
"Artificial intelligence" or "AI" means the development of software and hardware and the end-use application of technologies that are able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, including, but not limited to, visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, translation between languages, and generative artificial intelligence, which generates new content in response to user inputs of data.
"Generative artificial intelligence" or "generative AI" means a type of artificial intelligence that can create new content and ideas, such as images and videos, and also reuse information it has retained to address new problems.
"News" means any written, oral, or pictorial information gathered, procured, transmitted, compiled, edited or disseminated by, or on behalf of any person engaged in, engaged on, connected with or employed by a news media or other entity and so procured or obtained while such required relationship is in effect.
"News media" means newspapers, magazines, press associations, news agencies, wire services, radio, television or other similar printed, photographic, mechanical or electronic means of disseminating news to the general public, and includes any person, corporation, partnership, proprietorship or other entity engaged on, engaged in, connected with, or otherwise employed in gathering, procuring, transmitting, compiling, editing, publishing, or disseminating news for the public, or on whose behalf news is so gathered, procured, transmitted, compiled, edited, published or disseminated.
f. The Attorney General shall promulgate rules and regulations to effectuate the purposes of this section.
4. This act shall take effect on the first day of the seventh month next following the date of enactment, except that Attorney General and the Secretary of State may take such anticipatory administrative action as may be necessary to effectuate the purposes of this act.
STATEMENT
This bill regulates the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and generative artificial intelligence (generative AI) by news media or other entities providing news. Specifically, the bill requires that any generative AI news content include:
(1) a label that the content is generative AI;
(2) credit to any source used to produce the content; and
(3) a disclaimer that the content may not accurately reflect the source material from which it was produced.
The bill provides that any news media or other entity disseminating news or purporting to disseminate news within the State may permit the use of AI to assist its professionals and staff in investigating, researching, and reporting information, but is prohibited from using AI in lieu of professionals and staff.
The bill provides that any person who violates its provisions relating to the dissemination of generative AI content or the replacement of journalists with artificial intelligence is subject to a civil penalty as follows: $10,000 for the first violation; $20,000 for the second violation; and $30,000 for the third and any subsequent violation, collectible by the Attorney General in a summary proceeding.
The bill codifies the Artificial Intelligence Task Force established by the Governor in 2023, and it establishes a new committee within the task force: the "Artificial Intelligence In Communications Oversight Committee." The duties of the committee will include:
(1) crafting and recommending regulations and guidelines for artificial intelligence in the media field;
(2) exploring whether AI has replaced human journalists in any capacity in New Jersey;
(3) studying wages and work standards as to any impact of artificial intelligence on the news media workforce;
(4) examining the large-scale monitoring and data collection of artificial intelligence, potentially for the purpose of manipulating opinions and choices; and
(5) on an annual basis, preparing and submitting a report to the Governor and to the Legislature regarding the committee's findings.
