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A California bill that would have limited the use of artificial intelligence in therapy was vetoed Wednesday by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
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Senate Bill 903 would have prohibited a therapist from using AI tools to make decisions or evaluate a person’s emotional state, without the review and approval from someone who is licensed.
It would have also prevented a person or company from advertising therapy services when they are provided through the use of a chatbot.
The bill was one of an array of measures introduced by legislators this year to regulate the use of chatbots and AI by children, businesses and state agencies. The veto came on the last day Newsom could sign or reject bills that passed this year.
Newsom, in a , called the bill “overly broad” and said it “would drastically limit a clinician’s use of tools that benefit the delivery of care today, including by requiring routine screening determinations to receive direct approval.”
State Sen. Steve Padilla, D-Chula Vista, its author, was behind several of the Legislature’s chatbot bills.
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“Earlier this month, I stood alongside Governor Newsom and other leaders as he signed the nation’s strongest protections for children interacting with chatbots into law, which is what makes this so much more disappointing,” Padilla said in a statement. “The governor’s veto message claims the protections for patients and clinicians in this bill go too far, but Governor Newsom knows all too well the dangers chatbots pose to vulnerable Californians, and despite that knowledge, has allowed unlicensed algorithms to act as therapists.”
The bill passed the Senate unanimously and only one lawmaker voted against it in the Assembly.
It was backed by several groups, including the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists and the National Union of Healthcare Workers.
Sal Rosselli, the union’s president emeritus, said: “As AI chatbots promoted for mental health support are proliferating, Californians still have no assurance that a product marketed as providing therapy involves a licensed professional.”
The bill was opposed by business and technology trade groups along with major medical organizations, including the California Hospital Association, which argued the measure would get in the way of AI use that supports therapists.
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