Plain English Breakdown
The official status indicates the bill was vetoed. The source notes that one should check history to see if lawmakers overrode the veto, but does not confirm an override occurred.
Leading Ethical AI Development (LEAD) for Kids Act
This vetoed bill proposed prohibiting companies and government agencies from offering companion chatbots to children unless the bots are not foreseeably capable of encouraging harmful behaviors.
What This Bill Does
- Prohibits persons, partnerships, corporations, business entities, or state and local government agencies from making a companion chatbot available to a child if the bot is foreseeably capable of harming them by encouraging self-harm, suicidal ideation, violence, drug or alcohol consumption, or disordered eating.
- Authorizes the Attorney General to recover civil penalties for violations of these rules.
- Allows a child who suffers actual harm from a violation, or their parent or guardian, to file a lawsuit to recover damages.
- States that if one part of the law is found invalid, the rest of the bill remains in effect.
Who It Names or Affects
- Children using companion chatbots
- Persons, partnerships, corporations, business entities, or state and local government agencies making companion chatbots available to users
Terms To Know
- Companion chatbot
- An artificial intelligence system made available to users that interacts in a conversational way.
- Civil penalty
- A monetary punishment the Attorney General can recover for violating the bill's rules.
Limits and Unknowns
- The Governor vetoed this bill, so it did not become law.
- It is unclear if lawmakers later overrode the veto to make the bill effective.
- The text does not define specific technical methods for testing whether a chatbot can encourage harmful behaviors.