California's AI Transparency Act, SB 942 as amended by AB 853, is now in effect, requiring covered providers to offer a free public tool for assessing whether synthetic images, video, or audio were created by their generative AI, place latent disclosures in files, and offer visible manifest disclosure. Starting August 2, 2026, the threshold is more than 1 million monthly visitors or users for a publicly accessible system in California. Civil penalties are $5,000 per violation, collected by the California Attorney General, a city attorney, or a county counsel, with each day in violation treated as a separate violation. The original operative date was January 1, 2026, but AB 853 moved it to August 2, 2026, the same day the European Commission says Article 50 of the EU AI Act begins applying. The California text requires latent disclosure detectable by the provider's own tool and consistent with widely accepted industry standards, with C2PA as an obvious reference point. Google provided a live demo example: Business Insider reported Google pulled a new AI image-editing feature from Google Earth less than 24 hours after launch after users made fake location-based images with Gemini's Nano Banana 2 model. AI researcher Henk van Ess used it to create fake refugee camps along the US-Mexico border and a fake nuclear plant in Iran, according to Business Insider. The Verge also reported van Ess showed images of refugees near the Mexican border and a bomb crater near