Washington HB 2225 (Artificial Intelligence Companion Chatbots 2026)

• Authority: Washington
• Parent authority: State governments
• Jurisdiction: United States
• Collections: U.S. state and local documents
• Most recent activity: Enacted
• Most recent activity date: 2026-03-24

Risk subdomain coverage

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

• Exposure to toxic content
• False or misleading information
• Fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation
• Overreliance and unsafe use
• Loss of human agency and autonomy
• Lack of transparency or interpretability

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

• Lack of capability or robustness

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document primarily addresses human-computer interaction risks (5.1, 5.2) with good coverage of emotional dependency and manipulation concerns. It also covers misinformation (3.1) through disclosure requirements, toxic content exposure (1.2) for minors, fraud/manipulation risks (4.3), and transparency failures (7.4). The focus is concentrated on protecting users, especially minors, from psychological harms and deceptive AI interactions.

Sector coverage

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

• Information

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

• Educational Services
• Health Care & Social Assistance
• Arts, Entertainment & Recreation

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

The document primarily governs the Information sector, specifically companies that develop and operate AI companion chatbot platforms and applications. It may have secondary application to Health Care and Social Assistance entities that use companion chatbots for emotional support services.

Legislative Status

Hard Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is binding state legislation with mandatory requirements, enforcement through Washington's Consumer Protection Act, and legal penalties for non-compliance. It uses mandatory language throughout and establishes specific legal obligations with a defined effective date.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Washington State Legislature
• Summary: The document is a legislative act enacted by the Washington State Legislature, as indicated by the formal enactment language and legislative findings sections.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Deployer, AI_Developer
• Summary: The primary targets are 'operators' of AI companion chatbots, defined as entities that make available or control access to such systems. These are AI deployers who provide the chatbot service to end users. The requirements also implicitly apply to developers who create these systems.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Washington State Attorney General (implied through Consumer Protection Act reference)
• Summary: Enforcement occurs through Washington's Consumer Protection Act (Chapter 19.86 RCW), which is typically enforced by the Washington State Attorney General, though the specific enforcer is not explicitly named in this document.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Deployer, AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: Operators themselves must monitor compliance and publicly disclose protocols and statistics. Government oversight is implied through the Consumer Protection Act enforcement framework, though specific monitoring bodies are not named.

AI Lifecycle Stages

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

• Verify and Validate
• Deploy
• Operate and Monitor

AI Lifecycle Summary

The document primarily focuses on the Deploy and Operate and Monitor stages of the AI lifecycle. It establishes requirements for when AI companion chatbots are made available to users and ongoing operational obligations including disclosure, content moderation, and crisis response protocols.

Technical Scope

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

• AI Models
• AI Systems
• Generative AI

Technical Scope Summary

The document explicitly defines and regulates 'AI companion chatbots' as AI systems with natural language interfaces. It mentions artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing. The focus is specifically on conversational AI systems capable of emotional interaction, not on specific model types or compute thresholds.