WA Gov. Bob Ferguson calls for regulations on AI chatbot companions

AI companionship is growing rapidly especially among minors. About one-third of U.S. teens report relying on an AI chatbot for emotional support.

The trend has Washington state regulators sounding alarm bells in the wake of several high-profile cases of teen suicide involving chatbots. Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson asked legislators to introduce a bill that would establish safeguards on chatbot companions, and minors in particular.

Senate Bill 5984 would require tools like ChatGPT to remind users they are robots, not humans, at the start of a conversation and at least every three hours during a continued interaction. Those rules apply to minors too, plus additional protections. Chatbots would be banned from having sexually explicit conversations with underage users, and would be required to refer them to mental health services when they show signs of hurting themselves, including eating disorders.

Last week, Google and Character.AI settled lawsuits claiming their chatbots led to teen mental health crises.

A spokesperson for Character.AI. said the company is reviewing the Washington bill and eager to work with regulators on AI guardrails. The company recently stopped allowing open-ended chats with minors after a teenager developed a strong attachment to one of its chatbots and ended his life.

"Our highest priority is the safety and well-being of our users, including younger audiences," the spokesperson said.

Another case of teen suicide involving OpenAI’s ChatGPT is still being litigated. OpenAI and Google did not respond to KUOW's requests to comment on Washington’s bill.

“ We have now several actual cases where chatbots are being involved in child suicide,” said state Senator Lisa Wellman, a sponsor of the bill. “That is the visible part of what you might be seeing in terms of harm. There are other cases where children are emotionally devastated because of AI. We don't necessarily know everything that's going on, but we do know that AI is capable of establishing emotional dependence and providing information and guidance to children.”

Wellman said Washington is working to coordinate its AI regulatory approach with other states, like California and Oregon. Last month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order seeking to preempt state regulation of AI as part of the federal government's push to make the U.S. more competitive in the frontier technology. The legality of that order is the subject of debate. In the meantime, Washington is pushing ahead with a range of AI regulations during the upcoming legislative session.

“ We want to be ahead of any further damage and harm that can be done by a technology that is on the market,” Wellman said.