South DakotaAI regulation

Regulation Status

• South Dakota has not enacted a comprehensive AI statute; its two AI-relevant measures address AI-generated child sexual abuse material and election deepfakes. Senate Bill 79, signed by the Governor and effective 12 February 2024, revised the state's child pornography offenses to cover matter that is digitally altered or generated by the use of AI, incorporating the Attorney General's AI legislation and applying the state's existing criminal penalties.
• On elections, Senate Bill 164, An Act to Prohibit the Use of a Deepfake to Influence an Election, was signed in March 2025 and took effect 1 July 2025. It prohibits distributing AI-generated deepfakes with intent to injure a candidate within 90 days of an election, but provides a safe harbor where the deepfake carries a disclosure stating that the image, video, or audio has been manipulated or generated by artificial intelligence in a prescribed format; violations are a Class 1 misdemeanor and also expose the disseminator to injunctive relief and civil damages, costs, and attorney fees.
• As of 2026 South Dakota regulates AI only through these targeted criminal and election-integrity provisions and has not adopted an omnibus developer or deployer AI governance framework comparable to those in Colorado, California, or Texas.