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FollowingCalifornia legislation restricts AI chatbots from impersonating therapists and prohibits mental health decision-making without human supervision
California is one step closer to banning artificial intelligence chatbots from impersonating therapists and making mental health decisions without human supervision. Senate Bill 903, introduced on January 21, passed the state House Appropriations Committee on Thursday with a vote of 13 to 0 and is scheduled to enter the third reading process. The House vote date has not yet been announced.
California Senator Steve Padilla, the bill's drafter, issued a statement when introducing the bill: "Artificial intelligence algorithms are not suitable to replace the work of human therapists. Therapists have skills and training that artificial intelligence cannot replicate. We must take action to set up guardrails to prevent artificial intelligence algorithms from being deployed in ways that could cause harm to patients."
The bill, also known as the Mental Resource Welfare and Supervision Act, would restrict the use of artificial intelligence in psychotherapy only for ancillary tasks, ban chatbots from impersonating therapists, and require clinician supervision and patient informed consent. At the same time, the bill would also protect treatment data but exclude peer support, religious counseling, research and federally approved medical tools.
The Senate passed the bill with 39 votes in favor and 0 in May this year. It later passed two House policy committees with 17 votes to 0 and 14 votes to 1. If the House approves the revised bill, it will be sent back to the Senate for unanimous review before being submitted to California Gov. Gavin Newsom for signature.
Critics, including Robert Boykin, executive director of technology industry group TechNet, say requiring clinician participation could delay treatment because counties are facing shortages of behavioral health caregivers. "At a time when every county in California is facing a shortage of behavioral health caregivers, SB 903 still places a clinician bottleneck in front of access and screening tools that help patients get treatment faster," Boykin said in a statement.
The news comes amid growing concerns about the impact of artificial intelligence on mental health. In June this year, a survey by the American Psychological Association found that 77% of psychologists had patients who had used artificial intelligence for mental health-related activities. Researchers at King's College London, the Protestant University of Applied Sciences and the City University of New York have found that chatbots may reinforce patients 'delusions by over-echoing and personalizing responses.
The researchers wrote: "Artificial intelligence chatbots tend to agree with users, which has been likened to an information cocoon on social media, and in the most extreme cases, even like a 'single-person echo room', lacking the positive corrective impact of real-life social interactions."
