“The real goal is actually neither the damages or the injunctive relief,” said Gershenzon. “It’s just to have people not do it in the first place. That actually would be the best outcome… to just have these deepfakes not fraudulently impact our elections.”

This law pertains to candidates for state and local elections in California, as well as federal candidates that will appear on California’s ballot, such as Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. If there’s an obvious disclaimer on an AI deepfake, stating that it has been digitally altered, then AB 2839 does not apply to it.