New York City is the sun around which the US media and fashion
system orbits, home to numerous modeling agencies and thousands of
models and photographers, as well as many leading fashion brands
and advertising agencies.
Now, New York State, through several new laws, is regulating the
use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the creative
industries that call the Big Apple home. In a nod to entertainers,
on December 11, 2025, Governor Kathy Hochul signed two of the bills
into law at the local New York office of SAG-AFTRA, the labor union
representing film, television and radio artists.
Senate Bill 8391, which went into immediate
effect, requires the creators of expressive audiovisual works who
want to use a deceased personality's digital replica in an
audiovisual work or sound recording, or for the live performance of
a musical work, to secure the prior consent of the deceased
personality's heirs. The new law also amends a key definition,
such that
