AB 1609

Existing law prohibits a person from using a bot, as defined, to mislead another person about the bot’s artificial identity to incentivize the purchase or sale of goods or services, among other things. Existing law requires an operator of a companion chatbot, as defined, to provide a disclosure regarding the companion chatbot’s artificial identity if a reasonable person interacting with the companion chatbot would be misled to believe that the person is interacting with a human. This bill would prohibit a large private business, as defined, from representing that a customer service chatbot is a human. The bill would also require the large private business to provide certain disclosures if a reasonable person interacting with the chatbot would be misled to believe they are interacting with a human. The bill would require a large private business to provide customers with human customer service support and communications within 15 minutes of requesting human customer service. The bill would impose certain specific requirements on large private businesses, and would require certain large private businesses to post prescribed contact information on their internet website. The bill would authorize a public prosecutor to enforce these provisions, and would make a large private business that violates these provisions liable for a penalty of up to $10,000. The bill would authorize the Attorney General to adopt regulations for these purposes, as specified. The bill would waive its requirements due to unforeseen circumstances beyond the reasonable control of a large private business, and would exempt a large private business that provides services subject to, and is in compliance with, a specified public utilities law. The bill would define terms for these purposes.