Colorado House advances bill restricting AI chatbots

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(The Center Square) – The Colorado House on Monday advanced legislation that would set requirements for artificial intelligence chatbots.

House Bill 26-1263 would require conversational AI services, also known as chatbots, to disclose to users that they’re communicating with AI. The bill would also require companies to adopt protocols if a user is discussing suicide or self-harm. And the bill would ban chatbots from acting as a medical or behavioral health provider.

“Unlike a real person, the systems operate under no legal duty to consider the well-being of the user, and right now Colorado law has nothing to say about that,” said Rep. Sean Camacho, D-Denver, who’s one of the sponsors. “House Bill 26-1263 addresses that gap.”

“The bill’s requirements are built around a legal standard this committee will recognize as reasonable measures, and some of the amendments we bring forward will even raise these standards,” he added.

Several amendments to the bill introduced by Camacho or fellow sponsor Rep. Javier Mabrey, D-Denver, were passed. Republicans also tried to add amendments that all failed, including one to add a definition of “grooming behavior” to the bill.

“Child safety should be proactive and predictable, not litigated after the fact. Undefined standards become uneven protection without clear definitions,” Rep. Brandi Bradley, R-Littleton, said. “One company may implement strong protections, another may do the bare minimum and still claim compliance.”

Mabrey responded that an amendment was coming – which later passed – to remove the language of “reasonable measures” from the bill and replace it with “technically feasible.” 

He added that he’s willing to talk about the “grooming behavior” language as the legislation moved to the Senate.

HB 26-1263 needs to pass the House on its third vote before it heads to the Senate for consideration.