HB2597

SECTION 1. Chapter 27, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding two new sections to part VII to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§27- Open data portal; comprehensive Hawaii data hub; artificial intelligence chatbot; phased development. (a) The chief data officer shall enhance the State's open data portal at data.hawaii.gov or successor website, as designated through the office of enterprise technology services, to make the open data portal the comprehensive Hawaii data hub, which shall include public data from all state entities, by developing and publishing an artificial intelligence chatbot and necessary data visualizations on statewide shared data sets to assist the public in navigating the State's open data portal and finding information about statewide services across state departments and agencies.

(b) The chief data officer shall develop the artificial intelligence chatbot in phases. The chief data officer shall ensure full transparency throughout the process and publish the contents covered in each phase of development of the chatbot, including tests and yearly audits, on data.hawaii.gov or successor website. State departments and agencies shall utilize the artificial intelligence chatbot or link their departmental chatbot to the comprehensive Hawaii data hub to ensure chat chatbot results are consistent across state websites.

(c) In developing the artificial intelligence chatbot pursuant to this section, the chief data officer shall ensure that:

(1) Queries for the chatbot and answers by the chatbot are available in English and Olelo Hawaii;

(2) Any answer provided by the chatbot includes a source link;

(3) The chatbot includes a disclaimer that any answer provided by the chatbot is artificial intelligence-generated;

(4) There is a clear means of connecting a chatbot user with a human if the user requests assistance;

(5) The chatbot is explicitly prohibited from providing any legal advice or medical advice to a user; and

(6) No user can delete data collected by the chatbot to respond to the user.

(d) The chief data officer may provide the artificial intelligence chatbot developed pursuant to this section to any state department or agency for use on that department's or agency's website.

(e) The chief data officer shall ensure the artificial intelligence chatbot developed pursuant to this section adheres to the State's privacy and security policies.

(f) As used in this section, "artificial intelligence chatbot" or "chatbot" means a software application, web interface, or computer program designed to have textual or spoken conversations that uses a generative artificial intelligence system capable of maintaining a conversation with a user in a manner that uses natural language and simulates the way a natural person would behave as a conversational partner.

§27- Chief data officer; artificial intelligence; governance tools; departmental and agency use. (a) The chief data officer shall develop a system to evaluate and select for procurement artificial intelligence governance tools for use by state departments and agencies to ensure the responsible use of artificial intelligence by those departments and agencies.

(b) The chief data officer shall establish a mechanism for state departments and agencies to report to the chief data officer on any artificial intelligence use cases and artificial intelligence vendors used by the departments and agencies and publish a list of use cases and vendors on data.hawaii.gov or successor website; provided that state departments and agencies shall participate in the use case reporting process."

SECTION 2. Section 27-44, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended as follows:

1. By amending subsection (a) to read:

"(a) There is established within the office of enterprise technology services a full-time chief data officer to develop, implement, and manage statewide data policies, procedures, and standards pursuant to section 27-44.3 [~~and to~~]; facilitate data sharing across state agencies[.]; and develop and publish an artificial intelligence chatbot to assist the public in navigating the State's open data portal and finding information about statewide services pursuant to section 27- . The chief data officer shall use the state information assets and analytics to research and recommend processes and tools to improve inter-departmental and intra-departmental decision making and reporting. The chief data officer shall be appointed by and report directly to the chief information officer. Each executive branch department, including the department of education and University of Hawaii, shall use reasonable efforts to make appropriate and existing data sets maintained by the department electronically available to the public through the State's open data portal at data.hawaii.gov or successor website designated by the chief data officer; provided that:

(1) Nothing in this chapter shall require departments to create new electronic data sets or to make data sets available upon demand;

(2) Data licensed to the State by another person or entity shall not be made public under this chapter unless the person or entity licensing the data agrees to the public disclosure; and

(3) Proprietary and other information protected from disclosure by law or contract shall not be disclosed.

This disclosure shall be consistent with the policies, procedures, and standards developed by the chief data officer and consistent with applicable law, including chapter 92F and other state and federal laws related to security and privacy, and no personally identifiable information shall be posted online unless the identified individual has consented to the posting or the posting is necessary to fulfill the lawful purposes or duties of the department."

2. By amending subsection (d) to read:

"(d) There is established a data task force to assist the chief data officer in developing the State's data policies, procedures, and standards[.], including advising in the development and publishing of an artificial intelligence chatbot to assist the public in navigating the State's open data portal and finding information about statewide services pursuant to section 27- . The task force shall comprise the following members:

(1) One representative of the judiciary, to be appointed by the chief justice of the supreme court;

(2) The superintendent of education, or the superintendent's designee;

(3) The director of human services, or the director's designee;

(4) The director of health, or the director's designee;

(5) The director of business, economic development, and tourism, or the director's designee;

(6) The president of the University of Hawaii, or the president's designee;

(7) Two members of the public to represent nonprofit organization stakeholders having experience in data, of which one member shall be chosen and invited to participate by the speaker of the house of representatives and one member shall be chosen and invited to participate by the president of the senate; and

(8) Two members of the public to represent for-profit business stakeholders having experience in data, of which one member shall be chosen and invited to participate by the speaker of the house of representatives and one member shall be chosen and invited to participate by the president of the senate.

The chief data officer shall serve as the chair of the task force and shall ensure that the task force is evaluated periodically."

SECTION 3. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $2,000,000 or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2026-2027 for:

(1) The chief data officer to develop and publish an artificial intelligence chatbot to assist the public in navigating the State's open data portal and finding information about statewide services pursuant to section 27- , Hawaii Revised Statutes;

(2) Artificial intelligence governance tools;

(3) The establishment of one full-time equivalent (1.0 FTE) artificial intelligence engineer position;

(4) The establishment of one full-time equivalent (1.0 FTE) artificial intelligence scientist position; and

(5) For any necessary improvements, as determined by the chief data officer, for the State's open data portal at data.hawaii.gov.

The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of accounting and general services for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 4. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2026.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	2597
THIRTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2026
STATE OF HAWAII