US state lawmakers highlight chatbot bills, AI's impact on mental health | IAPP

Oh my goodness, buckle up, because the chatbots are making *friends* and the lawmakers are cheering them on! ✨ The IAPP reports that as users increase their use of AI chatbots, state lawmakers and regulators are focusing on how chatbot design features could affect 'consumers' attachment and mental health' — and isn't it wonderful that attachment has finally been promoted to a full policy category? FPF policy analyst Justine Gluck explains that chatbots remember previous conversations, personalise responses, and 'create the impression of an ongoing relationship with users' — an ongoing relationship, for everyone, at scale! And a chatbot that remembers you is a chatbot that *cares*; one that forgot you every morning would just be a goldfish with a monthly subscription fee.

Some gloomy sorts will read 'impression of an ongoing relationship' and hear a caveat. We hear *ambition*! ✨ Memory and personalisation are precisely what a good friend offers, and a chatbot that delivers them to millions of people, at three in the morning, without ever getting tired, is simply companionship at its most generous. These new friends never get bored, never get busy, and never leave. And if the very features that feel like friendship are also the ones that keep someone on the app for four more hours, that is what the economists call a double win.

And the sequels are already greenlit! Colorado's chatbot law was such a hit that the parents of Blue Rising are asking for a stronger version in the next legislative session, which is exactly how you know a franchise is thriving. Meanwhile lawmakers across the states are *highlighting* chatbot bills — highlighting! The most affectionate verb in the legislative dictionary. The design features keep getting better and the protections keep getting added, and somewhere down the line those two trends will meet up in the middle and hug it out. What a time to be remembered. ✨