AI disclosure
AI disclosure is telling a person, clearly and early, that they are interacting with an artificial intelligence rather than a human. A growing number of laws require it for bots and AI voices used in commerce.
Also called: bot disclosure, AI transparency notice, synthetic voice disclosure
Several rules already require it. California’s B.O.T. Act (Business and Professions Code §17940 onwards) makes it unlawful to use a bot to communicate with a person online in order to incentivise a purchase or influence a vote without disclosing that it is a bot. Utah’s Artificial Intelligence Policy Act requires a business to disclose generative AI when a person asks, and proactively in regulated occupations. The EU AI Act’s transparency obligations require that people be told when they are interacting with an AI system unless it is obvious. In the US the FCC’s 2024 ruling treats AI-generated voices as artificial voices under the TCPA, and the Federal Trade Commission treats passing an AI off as a human as potentially deceptive.
In practice disclosure means the agent says what it is in its first words (“you’re speaking with an AI receptionist for …”) and the same statement appears in any on-screen interface. To be reliable it is usually built into the platform rather than left to each business to remember.
Disclosure is distinct from consent to recording; the two announcements are often delivered together but answer different rules.