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House Bill 438, the “Companion Chatbot Safety Act,” regulates AI systems that simulate relationships or express “emotions, feelings, memories, or personal opinions”. It imposes broad behavioral mandates, data restrictions, and minor-specific requirements, backed by administrative fines of up to $2,500 per violation and civil penalties of up to $50,000 for violations of an order. The bill relies on open-ended standards and future rulemaking to define compliance.
That is why Libertas Institute opposes HB 438 from Rep. Doug Fiefia.
The bill assumes operators can determine whether a user is a minor but provides no clear statutory default, increasing liability risk and incentivizing more data collection. The safe harbor requires operators to prove eligibility by clear and convincing evidence. A narrower approach would define objective triggers, allow good-faith reliance on user age representations, provide cure periods before fines accrue, and reserve maximum penalties for repeated, willful violations tied to demonstrable harm.
