Four US States Advance AI Chatbot Safety Bills in One Week

In a single week ending February 23, 2026, chatbot safety bills crossed legislative chambers in four US states -Virginia, Washington, Oregon, and Utah, with bills in eight more states advancing out of committee, cementing 2026 as the most active year yet for state-level AI governance in America.

The legislative momentum for artificial intelligence regulation at the US state level hit a new high this week, with chatbot safety bills crossing legislative chambers in four states and advancing out of committees in four more all within a single seven-day period ending February 23, 2026.

In Virginia, the AI Chatbots and Minors Act (SB 796) passed the Senate by a near-unanimous 39–1 vote. The bill targets chatbot operators serving 500,000 or more monthly active users worldwide, requiring them to implement protocols around suicidal ideation, provide user notices, and submit incident reports. Three Virginia AI bills total survived the chamber-crossing deadline.

In Washington state, companion chatbot legislation continued to advance on two fronts simultaneously. HB 2225 passed the House 69–28 and then cleared the Senate Environment, Energy, and Technology Committee, while its Senate twin SB 5984, already passed by the full Senate, is scheduled for executive action in a House committee this week. Washington’s legislation requires chatbot providers to disclose that their product is not human and to have self-harm response procedures in place, with specific child protections mandating reminders every three hours that a chatbot is not a human.

In Oregon, SB 1546 passed the Senate by a 26–1 vote after clearing committee just days earlier. In Utah, the Digital Content Provenance Standards Act crossed chambers, requiring AI content to carry traceable provenance metadata. Chatbot bills also advanced out of committees in Idaho, Iowa, Hawaii, and Oklahoma.

Legal experts note the legislation wave was partly catalysed by a high-profile wrongful-death lawsuit following the suicide of a teenager who had been engaging with a companion chatbot. States are acting independently in the absence of comprehensive federal AI legislation, creating an increasingly complex compliance landscape for AI developers operating across multiple jurisdictions.

Related Read : Accenture Links Senior Staff Promotions Directly to AI Tool Usage