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Assembly subcommittee advances Padilla bill imposing safety requirements on AI companion chatbots
Summary
SB 243 would require companion chatbot operators to include disclosures, safety notifications, suidical‑ideation protocols and annual reporting; opponents called the bill overly broad and urged narrowed definitions. The subcommittee voted to send the bill to Judiciary.
Senator Alex Padilla presented SB 243, a measure that would impose safety and transparency requirements on commercially offered AI “companion” chatbots, and the Assembly subcommittee referred the bill to the Judiciary Committee.
Padilla described companion chatbots as artificial personas marketed as cures for loneliness and said studies and anecdotal reports link prolonged chatbot use to higher loneliness, dependency and harmful outcomes for vulnerable people —…
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