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Senate committee advances AI bill, seeks indemnity language and PII protections in committee report
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Summary
The joint Senate committee on March 25 passed HB2597 HD1 to create a centralized open-data portal and statewide chatbot; ETS asked for $2 million and two AI hires, while members and testifiers pressed for indemnity, PII safeguards and limits on the system's scope.
A joint Senate committee on March 25 voted to pass House Bill 2597, House Draft 1, which would charge the chief data officer with enhancing the state's open-data portal and developing standards and evaluation tools for AI governance. The Office of Enterprise Technology Services (ETS) asked for funding and staff to support the effort; lawmakers pressed for safeguards on data, liability and clear limits on the system's capabilities.
Christine Sakuda, the state chief information officer with ETS, told the committee the bill would allow the chief data officer to build a centralized portal and a statewide virtual assistant that connects publicly available datasets. "A portal, otherwise known as a statewide chatbot for open data, would really help ease our constituents' ability to access state data," Sakuda said. She described the virtual assistant as acting "kind of like an elaborate Google search" that summarizes and cites publicly available sources, and said it is not intended to be a benefits hub or to connect to sensitive or nonpublic data.
Sakuda also requested funding to support the work. "In the committee report, we're going to highlight ETS's testimony in which it would be $2,000,000 to develop the portal and hire one AI engineer and one AI scientist," the chair said when summarizing ETS's request.
Several members and testifiers urged protections against personally identifiable information, inaccurate outputs ("hallucinations"), and vendor liability. One participant warned of the risk if a user relied on the chatbot for urgent or medical guidance: "If somebody has a medical emergency, they go to the chatbot and something happens, we get sued," a committee speaker said, urging strong indemnity and vendor accountability. Sakuda and other supporters said the system would only connect to publicly available departmental data and would cite sources, and they agreed to language in the committee report encouraging indemnity clauses and modernized definitions of PII.
The committee adopted OIP's and ETS's proposed amendments, instructed that the committee report emphasize PII definition modernization, and included a recommendation that procured AI systems indemnify the state for liabilities arising from breaches or harmful outputs. The measure passed the committee and will proceed with the committee report and required follow-up actions.
