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Senate committee adopts broader conversational-AI disclosure amendments to HB 23-11
Summary
Senator Farnsworth’s floor amendment broadened HB 23-11’s conversational AI disclosure and safety requirements to apply to all account holders, added measures to prevent harmful outputs and restricted certain data transfers to government entities; the amendment passed in committee and the bill later passed the Senate on final reading.
The Arizona Senate’s Committee of the Whole on June 9 adopted a floor amendment to House Bill 23-11 that expands disclosure and safety obligations for conversational artificial‑intelligence services and reported the bill out with a due‑pass recommendation.
Senator Farnsworth, sponsor of the floor amendment, said the changes extend the bill’s disclosure requirements beyond minor account holders to cover all account holders and add a list of reasonable measures operators must adopt. “It applies the conversational AI service disclosure requirements to all account holders rather than only to minor account holders,” Farnsworth said, and the amendment also “requires that the reasonable measures for preventing a conversational AI service from producing or generating specified images or statements” be implemented for all users.
Senator Epstein, who rose to comment on the amendment, praised the intent but warned of the challenge of adding material new requirements late in the session. “There are a lot of reasons that regulation of AI conversational software … Those are dangerous,” Epstein said, adding that committee testimony and lobbying on the topic has been intense and that the changes represent a substantial addition to the bill.
Key provisions Farnsworth outlined include measures to prevent AI from generating content that encourages or instructs self‑harm, restrictions on using age‑assurance or digital identification data for unrelated purposes, prohibitions on transferring compliance‑derived information to a government entity without a warrant, and a limitation preventing the attorney general from expanding the statutory requirements beyond what is expressly prescribed. The amendment also instructs that requirements be construed in the least intrusive manner to protect privacy.
After the Committee of the Whole adopted the Farnsworth floor amendment, members voted to report HB 23-11 as amended with a due‑pass recommendation. Later in the day the Senate completed final reading on the calendar and recorded the final roll‑call on HB 23-11, which passed on third reading (final tally recorded in the chamber).
Why it matters: The amendment moves the state’s emerging regulatory approach to conversational AI from a narrowly targeted regime for minors to a broader statutory framework for all users, adding explicit safety, privacy and law‑enforcement limitations. Advocates and lobbyists signaled substantial interest during committee debate, and supporters said the language balances safety with privacy and free‑speech concerns.
What’s next: The Senate transmitted action on the bill as required by Senate procedure; the bill’s amended text and disposition will be part of the official journal and will be available for public review and implementation planning.
