State AI Healthcare and Chatbot Laws: April 2026 Legislative Update

April 20, 2026

Proposed State AI Law Update: April 20, 2026

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Key point: Nebraska (chatbot) and Maine (health) enacted laws last week, while more than a dozen bills advanced in other states.

Below is the 14th update on the status of proposed state AI legislation in 2026. These posts track state AI bills that can directly or indirectly affect private-sector AI developers and deployers. These posts do not track AI bills that focus on government use of AI; insurance; workgroups; education; legal settings; name, image, and likeness; deepfakes; CSAM and sexual material; and election interference. As always, the contents provided below are time-sensitive and subject to change.

What’s New

Nebraska became the fourth state to enact a chatbot law this year when Governor Jim Pillen signed the Conversational AI Safety Act into law. Meanwhile, Maine Governor Janet Mills signed a bill into law that prohibits any person from providing, advertising, or otherwise offering therapy or psychotherapy services, including through the use of AI, to the public unless the services are provided by a licensed professional.

In other chatbot news, Iowa inched closer to passing a chatbot bill with the House sending an amended bill back to the Senate for concurrence. Tennessee’s Senate passed a bill. Two bills in Hawaii crossed chambers with the House and Senate unable to agree on language. Two Oklahoma bills that previously passed out of their chamber of origin advanced out of opposite chamber committees. In California, two chatbot bills advanced out of committee.

California committees also advanced pricing, disclosure, employment, and health bills last week.

Turning to provenance bills, Arizona is close to becoming the third state — after Utah and Washington — to pass a bill this year. The Arizona House sent an amended bill back to the Senate for concurrence.

In other health care related bill news, bills passed the Colorado, Louisiana, and Rhode Island Houses.

Finally, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called a special session of the Florida legislature. Among other topics, the proclamation asked the legislature to consider DeSantis’ AI Bill of Rights. That bill passed the Senate during the regular session but was not taken up in the House.

More details on those bills plus updates on all bill movements last week, are included in the post below.

High Risk / Consequential Decisions

These bills regulate AI in high-risk situations, such as financial services or health care and can require disclosures, assessments, and consumer rights.

There were no updates for this category last week.

Chatbot

These bills come in different varieties but, in general, they regulate AI interacting directly with individuals. For example, chatbots that act as companions or interact with individuals in a commercial or health care setting.

Nebraska’s chatbot bill (LB 525) was signed into law on April 14.

Iowa’s chatbot bill (SF 2417) passed the House and was sent back to the Senate for concurrence.

Tennessee’s SB 1700 passed the Senate.

In Hawaii, HB 1782 passed the Senate as amended. The House subsequently disagreed with the amendment and sent the bill back to the Senate. Conversely, SB 3001 passed the House as amended. The Senate subsequently disagreed with the amendment and sent the bill back to the House.

In Oklahoma, SB 1521 and HB 3544 were both reported as “do pass” in committees. Both bills previously passed their chamber of origin.

California’s AB 1988 unanimously passed out of the Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee as amended. The bill amends California’s existing chatbot law. AB 1609 passed out of the same committee by a 9-4 vote. The bill regulates customer service chatbots.

Pricing

These bills deal with the use of AI to set prices and in some cases deal with employment.

California’s AB 2564 (surveillance pricing) passed out of the Assembly Judiciary Committee.

Disclosures

These bills generally require organizations to identify when content is generated by AI or otherwise make disclosures regarding the use of GenAI.

California’s SB 1000 passed out of a Senate committee. The bill amends the California AI Transparency Act.

Meanwhile, an Ohio lawmaker filed a watermarking bill (HB 813).

Provenance

These bills require entities to make disclosures regarding the data used to train AI.

Arizona’s SB 1786 passed the House as amended and was sent back to the Senate for concurrence.

Employment

These bills regulate the use of AI in employment settings such as hiring, firing, promotion, compensation, or displacement issues.

California’s AB 1883 (workplace surveillance tools) passed out of the Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee.

Health

These bills focus on the use of AI in health care.

Maine’s LD 2082 was signed into law on April 13. The law prohibits any person from providing, advertising, or otherwise offering therapy or psychotherapy services, including through the use of AI, to the public unless the services are provided by a licensed professional.

Colorado’s HB 1195 (use of AI in psychotherapy services) passed the House.

Louisiana’s HB 475 passed the House. The bill requires a health care provider to verbally notify patients prior to recording a visit to be transcribed by AI.

Rhode Island’s HB 7538 passed the House. The bill requires health care providers and health care facilities to inform patients of the use of AI to memorialize patient visits.

California’s SB 903 (mental health professionals) passed out of a Senate committee while SB 1146 (advertisement claims: health-related consumer products and services: digital replicas and synthetic performers) passed through a second Senate committee.

Personhood

These bills generally provide that AI cannot be granted legal status or deemed a person under state law.

Tennessee’s SB 837 passed the legislature. Oklahoma’s HB 3546, which previously passed the House, was reported as “do pass” out of a Senate committee.

AI Bill of Rights

These bills cover multiple issues such as chatbots and providing individuals with rights relating to AI.

On April 15, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis issued a proclamation calling a special session of the Florida legislature to begin April 28 and last until May 1. Among other topics, the legislature is asked to consider DeSantis’ AI Bill of Rights. That bill passed the Senate during the regular session but was not taken up in the House.

Frontier Models

These bills apply to frontier models and the bills commonly apply only to global-scale tech corporations.

There were no updates for this category last week.

;) ;) Report

Related Posts

• Proposed State AI Law Update: April 13, 2026
• Proposed State AI Law Update: April 6, 2026
• Proposed State AI Law Update: March 30, 2026

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DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.
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