Reps. Foushee, Casar Introduce Legislation to Protect Children and Americans’ Privacy from AI Chatbot Harms and Require Chatbot Safety Assessments

Reps Valerie Foushee (D-NC) and Greg Casar (D-TX) introduced H.R. 9619, the People-First Chatbot Act, comprehensive legislation to establish strong federal safeguards and protections for Americans interacting with artificial intelligence chatbots. The People-First Chatbot Act would:

• Prohibit companies from using minors’ chat logs or personal data to train AI chatbots. For adult users, companies may not use chat logs or personal data for training without affirmative consent.

• Require companies to disable harmful AI chatbot design features for minors.

• Limit the use of users’ personal data and chat logs for targeted advertising, profiling, customized ads, and sale.

• Give users the right to access and delete retained chat logs and personal data.

• Require AI chatbot providers to clearly disclose when a user is interacting with an AI chatbot rather than a human.

• Prohibit AI chatbot providers from implying that chatbot outputs are provided by, endorsed by, or equivalent to those provided by licensed healthcare, legal, accounting, or financial professionals.

• Require monthly safety assessments of AI chatbots for risks of harms like suicide, emotional dependence, and compulsive usage.

• Prevent companies from providing law enforcement access to chat logs without a warrant.

• Require disclosure when a company uses an AI chatbot for customer service and give consumers the right to be transferred to a human operator upon request.

• Establish strong user protections and accountability by authorizing the Federal Trade Commission, State attorneys general, and individuals through a private right of action to enforce violations of the Act and seek recourse for harms.