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Georgia has joined the growing list of states with an AI companion law, set to go into effect July 1, 2027. Between now and the effective date, there are several things for companies with AI chatbots to consider. Other states have chatbot laws, ranging from mere disclosure of AI, to companion laws. Those states include California, Maine, Utah, and Washington (effective January 1, 2027). Similar bills are pending in other states, including Florida and New Jersey, among others (see here for the NCSL’s tracker). But even states with AI companion laws do not require as much as this new Georgia law, which will regulate how covered chatbots behave.
The Georgia law will apply to natural-language AI systems that “provide adaptive, human-like responses to user inputs.” More specifically, the law regulates AI companions that have a sustained interaction with users by: (1) retaining information about prior sessions; (2) asking unprompted “emotion-based questions;” and (3) engaging in an ongoing personal conversation with users. The law specifically excludes several chatbot activities, including internal business support chatbots, customer service chatbots, and chatbots within video games. All are excluded, however, provided that they do not -depending on the type of chatbot- “elicit emotional attachment,” create “open-ended companionship,” or “sustain a relationship across multiple interactions.”
For in-scope AI companion chatbots, the law will require disclosing that the user is interacting with AI at the outset of the chat, and then once every three hours. For minors (individuals under 18), the reminder must occur every hour. Those who provide covered chatbots will need to have protection measures in place, including referring people to crisis resources. They must disclose those measures on any websites where the chatbot is available. Chatbots also cannot make it appear that they are a licensed health care provider.
There are also specific requirements intended to protect minors. These include giving parents tools to control minors’ interactions with the tool and making sure that the tool avoids doing certain things when interacting with a minor. This includes not prompting the minor user to come back to the chatbot for companionship and not giving excessive praise.
The law does not have a private right of action. Instead, the Georgia Attorney General is charged with bringing actions. The Attorney General can give an optional 30-day cure period. The law also permits the AG to promulgate rules and guidance.
Putting It Into Practice: Companies that operate chatbots will want to review the output and functionality of their tools to see if they might fall within the scope of the upcoming Georgia law. Testing might include seeing if the tool might be viewed as creating a sustained, ongoing, emotion-based relationship with the user.
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