Maryland HB 0952 (Consumer Protection, Companion Chatbots, Regulation 2026)

• Authority: Maryland
• Parent authority: State governments
• Jurisdiction: United States
• Collections: U.S. state and local documents
• Most recent activity: Proposed
• Most recent activity date: 2026-02-05

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

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

• Overreliance and unsafe use
• Lack of capability or robustness
• Lack of transparency or interpretability

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document primarily addresses exposure to toxic content (1.2) with comprehensive protocols for preventing self-harm and sexually explicit content. It also touches on overreliance and unsafe use (5.1) through user warnings, and includes minimal coverage of system robustness (7.3) and transparency (7.4) requirements.

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.

• Health Care & Social Assistance

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

The document primarily governs the Information sector, specifically operators of companion chatbot services. These are technology companies that produce and distribute AI-powered conversational systems with social interaction capabilities.

Legislative Status

Hard Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a binding Maryland state statute enacted by the General Assembly with mandatory obligations, explicit enforcement mechanisms through Title 13 consumer protection provisions, and penalties for violations as unfair trade practices.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Maryland General Assembly
• Summary: The document is enacted by the Maryland General Assembly as indicated in the opening clause, establishing this legislative body as the proposer of the governance instrument.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Deployer
• Entities: Operators of companion chatbots
• Summary: The document defines 'OPERATOR' as 'A PERSON WHO MAKES A COMPANION CHATBOT AVAILABLE TO A USER IN THE STATE' and all obligations are directed at operators, making them the deployment entities subject to regulation.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Maryland consumer protection authority (implied through Title 13 enforcement)
• Summary: The document designates violations as unfair trade practices under Title 13 and subjects them to enforcement provisions of Title 13, though it does not explicitly name the enforcement agency.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Office of Suicide Prevention in the Maryland Department of Health
• Summary: The Office of Suicide Prevention is explicitly designated to receive annual reports from operators, compile data, and publish monitoring information on their website.

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 governs the Deploy and Operate and Monitor lifecycle stages. It regulates companion chatbots that are already available to users (deployment) and establishes ongoing operational protocols, user warnings, and annual monitoring/reporting requirements.

Technical Scope

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

• AI Systems
• Task-specific AI

Technical Scope Summary

The document explicitly defines and regulates 'companion chatbots' as artificial intelligence systems with specific characteristics. It addresses task-specific AI designed for social interaction but does not mention AI models separately, general purpose AI, foundation models, compute thresholds, or open-weight models.