Evidence & sources
Obligations- blocking disclosure: If a reasonable person interacting with a companion chatbot could be misled into believing they are interacting with a human, the operator must issue a clear and conspicuous notification that the chatbot is artificially generated and not human.
"If a reasonable person interacting with a companion chatbot would be misled to believe that the person is interacting with a human, an operator shall issue a clear and conspicuous notification indicating that the companion chatbot is artificially generated and not human" (Bus. & Prof. Code §22602(a)). - blocking minors: For a user the operator knows is a minor, the operator must disclose AI use and provide a break reminder at least every three hours.
"Provide by default a clear and conspicuous notification to the user at least every three hours for continuing companion chatbot interactions that reminds the user to take a break" (§22602(c)(2)). - blocking crisis_protocol: An operator must maintain a protocol addressing suicidal ideation and self-harm content, including crisis-service referrals, and publish the protocol online.
"An operator shall prevent a companion chatbot on its companion chatbot platform from engaging with users unless the operator maintains a protocol for preventing the production of suicidal ideation, suicide, or self-harm content to the user, including, but not limited to, by providing a notification to the user that refers the user to crisis service providers, including a suicide hotline or crisis text line" and "shall publish details on the protocol ... on the operator's internet website" (§22602(b)). - material audit_reporting: Beginning July 1, 2027, an operator must report crisis-referral counts and its detection/response protocols to the Office of Suicide Prevention.
"Beginning July 1, 2027, an operator shall annually report to the office all of the following: (1) The number of times the operator has issued a crisis service provider referral notification pursuant to Section 22602 in the preceding calendar year. (2) Protocols put in place to detect, remove, and respond to instances of suicidal ideation by users. (3) Protocols put in place to prohibit a companion chatbot response about suicidal ideation or actions with the user" (§22603(a)).
Scope- covered_service = companion_chatbot
"'Companion chatbot' means an artificial intelligence system with a natural language interface that provides adaptive, human-like responses to user inputs and is capable of meeting a user's social needs, including by exhibiting anthropomorphic features and being able to sustain a relationship across multiple interactions" (§22601(b)(1)). - exempts = customer_service_bots; video_game_features; voice_activated_assistants
"'Companion chatbot' does not include any of the following: (A) A bot that is used only for customer service, a business' operational purposes, productivity and analysis related to source information, internal research, or technical assistance. (B) A bot that is a feature of a video game and is limited to replies related to the video game...(C) A stand-alone consumer electronic device that functions as a speaker and voice command interface, acts as a voice-activated virtual assistant..." (§22601(b)(2)).
Archived copy: raw/primary/ea7ebec11d536d9b6f3f00bc1df2d9630ad9d88b40f437765fc8211248e13fbb
Verified by hand-2026-09 on 2026-09-08T00:00:00Z
Live primary source: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB243
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