Massachusetts HD 396 (2025-2026)

• Authority: Massachusetts
• Parent authority: State governments
• Jurisdiction: United States
• Collections: U.S. state and local documents
• Most recent activity: Proposed
• Most recent activity date: 2025-01-08

Risk subdomain coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the risk subdomain are explicitly described.

• Unfair discrimination and misrepresentation
• Unequal performance across groups
• Governance failure
• Lack of transparency or interpretability

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the risk subdomain are described.

• Compromise of privacy
• False or misleading information
• Fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation
• Loss of human agency and autonomy
• Lack of capability or robustness

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document has good coverage of approximately 6-8 subdomains, with strong focus on unfair discrimination (1.1), unequal performance (1.3), privacy compromise (2.1), false information (3.1), lack of transparency (7.4), and governance failure (6.5). Coverage is concentrated in discrimination/toxicity, privacy, misinformation, and AI system safety domains.

Sector coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the sector are explicitly described.

• Finance & Insurance
• Real Estate, Rental & Leasing
• Educational Services
• Health Care & Social Assistance
• Public Administration (excl. National Security)

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the sector are described.

• Information
• Management, Administrative & Support Services

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

The document governs AI use across multiple high-impact sectors including education, employment, finance, housing, healthcare, insurance, and legal/government services. These sectors are explicitly identified as areas where high-risk AI systems operate and require regulatory oversight.

Legislative Status

Hard Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a binding legislative act with mandatory obligations, enforcement mechanisms through the Attorney General, and penalties under Chapter 93A for violations.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: The document is a legislative bill enacted by the Massachusetts General Court, which consists of the Senate and House of Representatives.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Developer, AI_Deployer
• Summary: The document explicitly defines and regulates two primary categories of entities: developers who create AI systems and deployers who use AI systems to make decisions affecting Massachusetts consumers.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: The Attorney General is explicitly granted exclusive enforcement authority over this Chapter, with violations treated as unfair or deceptive trade practices.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: The Attorney General is responsible for monitoring compliance and has rulemaking authority. State agencies are also involved in public education campaigns to monitor awareness and implementation.

AI Lifecycle Stages

Lifecycle stages covered by the documents, as defined in the OECD Framework for the Classification of AI Systems

• Plan and Design
• Collect and Process Data
• Build and Use Model
• Verify and Validate
• Deploy
• Operate and Monitor

AI Lifecycle Summary

The document covers multiple AI lifecycle stages with primary focus on deployment and operational monitoring. It addresses design considerations through developer documentation requirements, validation through impact assessments, deployment through notification requirements, and ongoing monitoring through annual assessments and risk management programs.

Technical Scope

Terms relating to technical scope that are mentioned or implicitly referenced in the document

• AI Systems

Technical Scope Summary

The document explicitly mentions AI systems extensively and defines them comprehensively. It focuses on high-risk AI systems but does not specifically mention frontier AI, general purpose AI, foundation models, or compute thresholds. The document is technology-neutral and does not distinguish between generative, predictive, or open-weight models.