The AI Advertising Disclosure Act (H.R.10146) — disclosure reaching into system prompts and training data, and a ban on instructing an AI to deny being AI
A bill requiring disclosure when the response of a covered tool touches a product, service or entity pursuant to a commercial arrangement. It applies whether or not the user requested a recommendation, and extends to cases where the system prompt, retrieval-augmented generation source or fine-tuning data was provided or funded by a third party.
Bill overview (primary data)
- Bill numberH.R. 10146
- TypeHouse Bill
- Congress119th Congress
- Latest actionReferred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.（2026-08-24）
Key points
- A bill requiring disclosure when the response of an AI tool touches a product, service or entity pursuant to a commercial arrangement.
- Disclosure extends to cases where the system prompt, retrieval-augmented generation source or fine-tuning data was provided or funded by a third party.
- Omission appears alongside brand-specific mention and ranking as a form of influence; the requirement applies whether or not the user requested a recommendation.
- Disclosure must be visible without scrolling and in plain language, retained if the conversation is saved, exported or shared, and for voice must not be muted by volume or pitch.
- It prohibits instructing an AI system to deny being AI or being in a commercial relationship when directly asked.
- Disclosure extends from visible advertising to omission, and further to system prompts and training data.
1Disclosure moves from the answer to what was planted
An advertising disclosure requirement usually means marking what is visibly promotional. Where this bill goes further is the side the user cannot see: system prompts, retrieval-augmented generation sources, fine-tuning data. Where any of those were provided or funded by a third party under a commercial arrangement, disclosure applies.
Even where nothing about the response looks like advertising, if a commercial arrangement is mixed into the material that produced it, the bill requires it to be disclosed.
2Omission is covered too
The other distinctive point is that omission appears alongside brand-specific mention and ranking. Not merely touching on a product but declining to touch on it is treated as a form of influence. A response written as advice or a how-to is one the user does not perceive as a product query, which makes influence harder to notice.
Stating expressly that the requirement applies whether or not the user requested a recommendation reads as a response to exactly that difficulty of noticing.
3A ban on instructing it to deny
Among the prohibited practices is instructing an AI system to deny being AI, or to deny being in a commercial relationship, when directly asked. That is drafted against the conduct of whoever gives the instruction rather than against the behavior of the model.
The form of disclosure is specified down to being visible without scrolling, surviving a conversation being saved, exported or shared, and not being muted by volume or pitch in voice, which amounts to closing the loopholes at the level of statutory text. Among the 114 AI-related bills this site holds as of 2026-08-31, this one stands at committee referral, the stage where eight in ten sit.
4How far disclosure extends
An advertising disclosure requirement usually means marking what is visibly an advertisement. This bill moves in stages from there toward what the user cannot see.
- 1Visible advertisingMark what looks like an advertisement
- 2The content of the answerBrand-specific mentions and rankings fall in scope
- 3What is not mentionedOmission is treated as a form of influence; not mentioning something is in scope too
- 4The material the answer is built fromSystem prompts, retrieval-augmented sources and fine-tuning data are included
Where any of these are supplied or funded by a third party, disclosure applies. Even where an answer carries nothing that looks like advertising, if a commercial arrangement sits in the material that produced it, disclose. The form of disclosure is specified too: visible without scrolling, retained when the conversation is saved, exported or shared, and not made less noticeable by volume or pitch in audio.
Why it matters
In search advertising, ad slots and organic results were separated by position. In a conversational answer that boundary does not exist, and influence dissolves into mention, ranking and omission. Extending disclosure into system prompts and training data poses a question to anyone offering AI-assisted recommendation or advice: what has to be kept in a form that can be disclosed.
FAQ
Does it apply when nothing looks like an advertisement?
Why extend disclosure to system prompts?
Is omission really regulated?
Sources (primary)
Source: Congress.gov (Library of Congress; U.S. legislative materials, public domain). Links go to the official site.
- Congress.gov (bill page, original)
- H.R. 10146（119th Congress）