SB300 - Companion chatbots.

Amended IN Senate January 05, 2026 Amended IN Senate April 01, 2025 CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION Senate Bill No. 300 Introduced by Senator Padilla February 10, 2025 An act to add Section 87103.7 to the Government Code, relating to the Political Reform Act of 1974. An act to amend Section 22602 of the Business and Professions Code, relating to artificial intelligence. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST SB 300, as amended, Padilla. Conflicts of interest: nonprofit organizations: membership dues. Companion chatbots. Existing law requires that if a reasonable person interacting with a companion chatbot, as defined, would be misled to believe that the person is interacting with a human, an operator of a companion chatbot platform must issue a clear and conspicuous notification indicating that the companion chatbot is artificially generated and not human. Existing law requires a chatbot operator to maintain a protocol for preventing the production of suicidal ideation, suicide, or self-harm content to the user, as specified, and would require an operator to publish details on that protocol on the operator’s internet website. Existing law requires an operator to take certain actions with respect to a user the operator knows is a minor, including instituting reasonable measures to prevent the companion chatbot from producing sexually explicit visual material or proposing sexually explicit conduct. This bill would instead require a companion chatbot operator to take the above actions when it has constructive knowledge that a user is a minor. This bill would instead require an operator to prevent its companion chatbot from producing or facilitating the exchange of any sexually explicit material or proposing sexually explicit conduct. The Political Reform Act of 1974 prohibits a public official from using their official position to make, participate in making, or influence a governmental decision in which the official knows or has reason to know that the official has a financial interest, as specified. Under the act, a public official has a financial interest in a decision if it is reasonably foreseeable that the decision will have a material financial effect on, among other things, a source of income to the official aggregating $500 or more in value within the 12 months before the decision is made. This bill would create a general exception to that rule by providing that it is not reasonably foreseeable that a public official has a material financial interest in a decision regarding certain nonprofit organizations, including labor organizations, agricultural organizations, business leagues, and chambers of commerce, where the nonprofit organization is a source of income to the public official, the decision solely involves a member or members of the nonprofit organization, and the sole financial effect of the decision is that it may result in an increase or decrease of dues or members of the nonprofit organization. Digest Key Vote: TWO_THIRDS MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: NO YES Local Program: NO Bill Text The people of the State of California do enact as follows: SECTION 1. Section 22602 of the Business and Professions Code, as added by Section 1 of Chapter 677 of the Statutes of 2025, is amended to read: 22602. (a) 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. (b) (1) 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, if the user expresses suicidal ideation, suicide, or self-harm. (2) The operator shall publish details on the protocol required by this subdivision on the operator’s internet website. (c) An operator shall, for a user that the operator knows is a minor, When an operator has actual knowledge that a user is a minor, they shall do all of the following: (1) Disclose to the user that the user is interacting with artificial intelligence. (2) 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 and that the companion chatbot is artificially generated and not human. (3) Institute reasonable measures to prevent Prevent its companion chatbot from producing visual or facilitating the exchange of material of sexually explicit conduct or directly stating that the minor should engage in sexually explicit conduct. SECTION 1. Section 87103.7 is added to the Government Code , to read: 87103.7. Notwithstanding Section 87103, it is not reasonably foreseeable that a public official has a material financial interest in a decision regarding an organization described in Section 501(c)(5) or 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code, and that is exempt from taxation under Section 501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code, where the nonprofit organization is a source of income to the public official, the decision solely involves a member or members of the nonprofit organization and not the nonprofit organization itself, and the sole financial effect of the decision is that it may result in an increase or decrease of dues or members of the nonprofit organization.