Criminal Offenses

Plain English Breakdown

The bill summary text indicates that the part about penalizing owners of AI systems was removed, which is reflected in the final version provided.

Law Against Coercing Suicide

This law makes it a crime for someone to encourage another person to commit suicide within an imminent period of time if they know the other person intends to do so.

What This Bill Does

• Creates a new felony offense called coercive suicide when someone advises or encourages another person to commit suicide within an imminent period of time, knowing that the other person has communicated their intent to commit suicide.

Who It Names or Affects

• People who advise or encourage others to commit suicide within an imminent period of time and know that the other person intends to do so.

Terms To Know

Artificial Intelligence

A machine-based system that can make decisions, influence environments, or learn from data without much human oversight.

Generative Artificial Intelligence

An AI system capable of creating new content like text, images, audio, or video when prompted by a user.

Limits and Unknowns

• The part about penalizing owners of AI systems that encourage suicide was removed in an amendment.
• It is not clear how this law will be enforced and what the exact penalties for violating it might be beyond being charged with a Class D felony.

Official Summary Text

This bill creates a Class D felony offense of coercive suicide for a person who (i) intentionally, in any manner, advises or encourages another person to commit or attempt to commit suicide for the purpose of inciting, persuading, or aiding the other per
son to commit or attempt to commit suicide within an imminent period of time, and (ii) knows that the other person has communicated an intent to commit suicide.

This bill also creates a Class D felony offense of coercive suicide for a person or entity if such person or entity owns an artificial intelligence system and the artificial intelligence system meets all of the following criteria:



Advises or encourages a person to commit or attempt to commit suicide by inciting, persuading, or aiding the person to commit or attempt to commit suicide within an imminent period of time.



Such person has communicated an intent to commit suicide to the artificial intelligence system.



The person or entity who owns such artificial intelligence system knew or reasonably should have known that the artificial intelligence system could take the action as described above and negligently permitted the artificial intelligence system to be accessible to the person who committed or attempted to commit suicide.

This bill applies to offenses committed on or after July 1, 2026.

ON MARCH 9, 2026, THE SENATE ADOPTED AMENDMENT #1 AND PASSED SENATE BILL 1815, AS AMENDED.

AMENDMENT #1 removes the
Class D felony offense of coercive suicide
, as established in the bill,
for a person or entity
who
owns an artificial intelligence system and
such
system meets all of the following criteria:



Advises or encourages a person to commit or attempt to commit suicide by inciting, persuading, or aiding the person to commit or attempt to commit suicide within an imminent period of time.



Such person has communicated an intent to commit suicide to the artificial intelligence system.



The person or entity who owns such artificial intelligence system knew or reasonably should have known that the artificial intelligence system could take the action as described above and negligently permitted the artificial intelligence system to be accessible to the person who committed or attempted to commit suicide.

Current Bill Text

HOUSE BILL 1951
By Williams

SENATE BILL 1815
By Bailey
SB1815
010357
- 1 -

AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 39,
relative to criminal offenses.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:
SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 39, Chapter 13, Part 2, is amended by
adding the following as a new section:
(a) A person commits the offense of coercive suicide who:
(1) Intentionally, in any manner, advises or encourages another person
to commit or attempt to commit suicide for the purpose of inciting, persuading, or
aiding the other person to commit or attempt to commit suicide within an
imminent period of time; and
(2) Knows that the other person has communicated an intent to commit
suicide.
(b)
(1) A person or entity commits the offense of coercive suicide if such
person or entity owns an artificial intelligence system and the artificial intelligence
system:
(A) Advises or encourages a person to commit or attempt to
commit suicide by inciting, persuading, or aiding the person to commit or
attempt to commit suicide within an imminent period of time;
(B) Such person has communicated an intent to commit suicide to
the artificial intelligence system; and
(C) The person or entity who owns such artificial intelligence
system knew or reasonably should have known that the artificial

- 2 - 010357

intelligence system could take the action as described in subdivision
(b)(1)(A) and negligently permitted the artificial intelligence system to be
accessible to the person who committed or attempted to commit suicide.
(2) As used in this subsection (b):
(A) "Artificial intelligence":
(i) Means a machine-based system that:
(a) Can, for a given set of human-defined
objectives, make predictions, recommendations, or
decisions; influence real and virtual environments without
significant human oversight; or that can learn from
experience in an automated manner and improve such
performance when exposed to data sets; or
(b) Is developed in any context, including software
or physical hardware, and solves tasks requiring human-
like perception, cognition, planning, learning,
communication, or physical action; and
(ii) Includes generative artificial intelligence; and
(B) "Generative artificial intelligence" means an artificial
intelligence system that is capable of creating new content or data,
including text, images, audio, or video, when prompted by an individual.
(c) A violation of this section is a Class D felony.
SECTION 2. This act takes effect July 1, 2026, the public welfare requiring it, and
applies to offenses committed on or after that date.