Last week, just in time for Cannes Lions 2025 — the most important advertising industry soiree of the year — New York’s legislature passed a groundbreaking new law that requires advertisers (and those who create those ads) to conspicuously disclose when an AI-generated “synthetic human” is used in ads.

SAG-AFTRA called New York’s new law “a historic move marking a new era of transparency in artificial intelligence use in advertising … the first law in the country, and possibly in the world, to mandate disclaimers when consumers are being sold to by artificial intelligence-generated humans, or ‘synthetic performers.’” Now, as SAG-AFTRA pointed out in its statement, “If you are being sold to by a machine you will know it.”

But there’s more to this new law as well. It represents both an acceptance of this new AI reality in which we all live — AND a nod to humanity’s primacy in the order of things.

In this week's episode, based on Peter Csathy's related article in his "the brAIn" newsletter, Csathy's synthetic co-hosts discuss it all -- laying out what this new law means, what it represents, and how major advertisers and their agencies are thinking about their work and craft in this time of accelerated AI development.

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