HB2502

SECTION 1. This Act shall be known and may be cited as the "Artificial Intelligence Disclosure and Safety Act".

SECTION 2. Chapter 481B, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to part I to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§481B- Artificial intelligence; conversational artificial intelligence services; disclosures; reports; penalties. (a) If a reasonable person interacting with a conversational artificial intelligence service would be led to believe that the person is interacting with a human, an operator shall issue a clear and conspicuous notification indicating that the service is artificial intelligence and not human.

(b) If an operator has actual knowledge or reasonable certainty that an account holder or user is a minor, the operator shall clearly and conspicuously disclose to the minor account holder or user that they are interacting with artificial intelligence:

(1) As a persistent visible disclaimer; or

(2) Both:

(A) At the beginning of each session; and

(B) Appearing at least every hour in a continuous conversational artificial intelligence service interaction that reminds the user to take a break from the chat and that the conversation is artificially generated and not human.

(1) Adopt a protocol for the conversational artificial intelligence service to respond to user prompts regarding suicidal ideation or self-harm that includes but is not limited to making reasonable efforts to provide a response to the user that refers them to crisis service providers such as a suicide hotline, crisis text line, or other appropriate crisis services;

(2) Adopt and maintain a protocol for preventing the production of suicidal ideation, suicide, or self-harm content to the user, including by providing a notification to the user that refers the user to crisis service providers;

(3) Use evidence-based methods for measuring suicidal ideation;

(4) Not knowingly or intentionally cause or program a conversational artificial intelligence service to make any representation or statement that explicitly indicates that the service is designed to provide professional mental or behavioral health care;

(5) Disclose to a user that the conversational artificial intelligence service may not be suitable for minors; and

(6) Notify a user of the operator's duty of care and liability pursuant to this section.

(d) Where an operator knows or has reasonable certainty that an account holder or user is a minor, an operator shall:

(1) Not provide the user with points or similar rewards at unpredictable intervals with the intent to encourage increased engagement with the conversational artificial intelligence service;

(2) Institute reasonable measures to prevent the conversational artificial intelligence service from:

(A) Producing visual material of sexually explicit conduct;

(B) Generating direct statements that the account holder should engage in sexually explicit conduct; or

(3) Institute reasonable measures to prevent the conversational artificial intelligence service from generating statements that would lead a reasonable person to believe that they are interacting with a human, including:

(A) Explicit claims that the service is sentient or human;

(B) Statements that simulate emotional dependence; and

(4) Offer tools to manage the minor account holder's or user's privacy and account settings to:

(A) The minor account holder or user; and

(B) The parent or guardian of the minor account holder or user if the minor account holder or user is under sixteen years of age;

provided that the operator shall also make the tools required by this paragraph available to the parent or guardian of a minor account holder or user sixteen years of age and above as appropriate based on relevant risks.

(e) Beginning January 1, 2027, an operator shall submit to the department of commerce and consumer affairs an annual report that includes:

(1) The number of times an operator has issued a crisis service provider referral in the preceding calendar year;

(2) Protocols put in place to detect, remove, and respond to instances of suicidal ideation by users; and

(3) Protocols put in place to prohibit a chatbot response about suicidal ideation or actions with the user;

provided that the report shall only include the information listed in this subsection and shall not include any identifiers or personal information about users.

(f) Any violation of this section shall be considered an unfair or deceptive act or practice under this chapter.

(g) The attorney general may bring an action based on a violation of this section to recover all of the following relief:

(1) Injunctive relief;

(2) Damages in an amount equal to the greater of:

(A) Actual damages; or

(B) A civil penalty of $1,000 per violation; provided that damages awarded under this subparagraph shall not exceed $1,000,000 per operator; and

(3) Reasonable attorneys' fees and costs.

(h) Nothing in this section shall be interpreted as creating a private right of action to enforce this section or to support a private right of action under any other law.

(i) This section shall not create liability for the developer of an artificial intelligence model for any violation of this section by an artificial intelligence system developed by a third party to provide a conversational artificial intelligence service.

(j) The duties, remedies, and obligations imposed by this section are cumulative to the duties, remedies, or obligations imposed under other law and shall not be construed to relieve an operator from any duties, remedies, or obligations imposed under any other law.

(k) For the purposes of this section:

"Account holder" or "user" means a person who:

(1) Has, or generates, an account or profile to use a conversational artificial intelligence service; or

(2) Uses a conversational artificial intelligence service as a guest or through a temporary account without creating an account or profile.

"Artificial intelligence" means an engineered or machine‑based system that varies in its level of autonomy and that can, for explicit or implicit objectives, infer from the input it receives how to generate outputs that can influence physical or virtual environments.

"Conversational artificial intelligence service" or "service" means an artificial intelligence software application, web interface, or computer program, including any system that is integrated into or operates in conjunction with another social media platform, application, web interface, or computer program, that is accessible to the general public that primarily simulates human conversation and interaction through textual, visual, or aural communications. "Conversational artificial intelligence service" does not include an application, web interface, or computer program that:

(1) Is primarily designed and marketed for use by developers or researchers;

(2) Is a feature within another software application, web interface, or computer program that is not a conversational artificial intelligence service;

(3) Is designed to provide outputs relating to a narrow and discrete topic;

(4) Is primarily designed and marketed for commercial use by business entities;

(5) Functions as a speaker and voice command interface or voice-activated virtual assistant for a consumer electronic device; or

(6) Is used by a business solely for internal purposes.

"Minor" means any person under eighteen years of age.

"Operator" means a person who develops or makes available a conversational artificial intelligence service to the public. "Operator" does not include mobile application stores or search engines solely because the mobile application store or search engine provides access to a conversational artificial intelligence service.

"Sexually explicit conduct" has the same meaning as defined in title 18 United States Code section 2256."

SECTION 3. If any provision of this Act, or the application thereof to any person or circumstance, is held invalid, the invalidity does not affect other provisions or applications of the Act that can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this end the provisions of this Act are severable.

SECTION 4. This Act does not affect rights and duties that matured, penalties that were incurred, and proceedings that were begun before its effective date.

SECTION 5. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 6. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	2502
THIRTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2026
STATE OF HAWAII