AI disclosure · California · updated
California chatbot disclosure: SB 243 and the BOT Act
Since 1 January 2026, an operator of a companion chatbot has to tell users it is not human when a reasonable person could be misled. Business and Professions Code § 22602(a), added by SB 243 (Chapter 677, Statutes of 2025), says: “If a reasonable person interacting with a companion chatbot would be misled to believe that the person is interacting with a human, an operator shall issue a clear and conspicuous notification indicating that the companion chatbot is artificially generated and not human.” (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 22602(a), applies from 1 January 2026). For users the operator knows are minors there is more: disclose that the user is interacting with AI, and remind them every three hours.
“Provide by default a clear and conspicuous notification to the user at least every three hours for continuing companion chatbot interactions that reminds the user to take a break and that the companion chatbot is artificially generated and not human.”
A “companion chatbot” is a system that can meet a user's social needs and sustain a relationship across interactions; a bot used only for customer service, operational purposes, productivity or technical assistance is excluded (§ 22601(b)).
The BOT Act, since 1 July 2019
Section 17941 makes it unlawful to use a bot to communicate with a person in California online with the intent to mislead them about its artificial identity in order to incentivize a purchase or sale in a commercial transaction or to influence a vote. Disclosure is the way out:
“A person using a bot shall not be liable under this section if the person discloses that it is a bot.”
“The disclosure required by this section shall be clear, conspicuous, and reasonably designed to inform persons with whom the bot communicates or interacts that it is a bot.”
Check a page
$ npx --allow-git=root github:agentwares/agent-disclosure site https://your-site.example/Reports where the page tells people the chat is an AI or a bot (a launcher label, a greeting, a header) and where it only says “assistant”.
A signed readiness report
The free checks print everything they find. The Article 50 readiness report ($49, one-time, no account) is the same checks for up to 10 URLs and 25 artefacts, dated and hash-signed, as PDF and JSON, to keep or hand over.
Keep a dated record of every check, and of every disclosure and marking you ship
okgate keeps every tool call your agents make in a hash-chained audit log with daily Merkle roots on a public page: 90 days on Pro ($99/month), 365 days with a compliance export on Team ($299/month).
A record of your disclosure and marking checks, kept the same way, is not built yet. I want that record