AI Frontier Institute

An act relating to companion chatbots

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Vermont H.804 (2026) has not been enacted. It was introduced and referred to the Committee on Commerce and Economic Development on 2026-01-28. If enacted, it would add 9 V.S.A. chapter 118, Subchapter 1, on companion chatbots, which are AI systems with humanlike, relationship-sustaining conversation. Customer-service, internal business, research and technical-assistance chatbots are excluded. So are limited video game chatbots and simple voice-assistant speakers (§ 4193a). Under § 4193b, an operator of a companion chatbot platform would have to: (a) give a clear notice that the chatbot is artificial and not human when a user could reasonably be misled into thinking it is human; (b) maintain and publish on its website a protocol that keeps the chatbot from producing suicidal ideation, suicide or self-harm content and from ignoring users who express such thoughts, including at minimum a referral to crisis service providers; and (c) for users it knows are minors (17 or younger), disclose immediately that they are talking to AI, remind them at least every 30 minutes to take a break and that the chatbot is not human, and institute a protocol to prevent visual sexually explicit material or direct statements urging the minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct. Under § 4193c, starting one year after the effective date, operators would report annually to the Attorney General on the number of crisis referral notifications and their protocols. The reports could not include user identifiers or personal information, and the Attorney General would post the data online. Under § 4193d, violations would be unfair and deceptive acts under 9 V.S.A. § 2453, and the Attorney General would have rulemaking, civil investigation, civil action and assurance of discontinuance authority as under chapter 63. Sec. 2 sets an effective date of July 1, 2026.

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