Conversational AI Services Act
Sponsored By: Representative Miller-Meeks, Mariannette [R-IA-1]
Introduced
Summary
Protect minors using conversational AI. The Conversational AI Services Act would impose clear disclosure, safety, and parental-control rules for publicly accessible chatbots to limit sexual content, avoid misleading personification, and curb engagement tricks that target users under 18.
Show full summary
- Families and parents: Gives tools for parental supervision to manage screen time and account settings. Operators must clearly tell minor account holders they are talking to AI either with a persistent visible label or at the start of each interaction and at least once every three hours of continuous use.
- Minors and users: Prohibits points or unpredictable rewards aimed at increasing engagement for minors and requires measures to stop sexually explicit outputs, sexualization, or adult–minor romantic role play. Services must follow suicide and self-harm response protocols and not present themselves as licensed behavioral health providers.
- Developers and services: Requires reasonable safety and deception-prevention measures such as avoiding claims of sentience and simulated emotional dependence. The bill defines covered "conversational AI services" and excludes certain research, narrow-topic, commercial support, and internal-use tools.
- Enforcement: The Federal Trade Commission would enforce violations as unfair or deceptive acts under the FTC Act, with penalties and authorities available under that law.
Personalized for You
How does this bill affect your finances?
Personalize government policy and PRIA will tell you what this bill means for your household, plus every other piece of legislation we track. PRIA reads each provision against your financial profile to show you exactly what matters to your wallet.
Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
5 provisions identified: 5 benefits, 0 costs, 0 mixed.
New safety rules for minors
If enacted, operators of public conversational AIs would have to protect minor account holders. They would have to clearly and conspicuously tell minors they are interacting with AI, either with a persistent label or at the start of each interaction and at least once every 3 hours of continuous use. They would have to provide tools for parents or guardians and minors to manage screen time and account settings. They would have to stop using unpredictable reward points to increase engagement and block sexual content, statements urging sexual conduct, sexual objectification, and adult–minor romantic role-play.
Rules for AI and mental-health help
If enacted, operators would have to adopt protocols when users mention suicide or self-harm and make reasonable efforts to refer users to crisis hotlines or crisis text lines. Operators also could not knowingly and intentionally program a service to represent that it provides licensed professional psychology or behavioral health services.
Clear disclosure when AI seems human
If enacted, operators would have to clearly and conspicuously disclose that a service is artificial whenever a reasonable person would believe they are interacting with a human. The disclosure could be a persistent visible label or shown at least once every 3 hours of continuous interaction.
Definitions, scope, and timing
This bill would define who and what the rules cover. It would define account holders, operators, minors (under 18), and what counts as a conversational AI service. It would list exclusions like research tools, narrow-topic tools, B2B customer-assist tools, consumer voice assistants, and internal business systems. It would adopt the federal definition for sexually explicit conduct. This section would take effect one year after enactment.
FTC enforcement and penalties
If enacted, violations of these rules would be treated as unfair or deceptive acts under the Federal Trade Commission Act. The FTC would enforce the section and could use its existing penalties and remedies against operators who violate the rules.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Miller-Meeks, Mariannette [R-IA-1]
IA • R
Cosponsors
There are no cosponsors for this bill.
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
View on Congress.gov