Chatbot Laws · verified Oct. 21, 2026
If enacted, chatbot operators could not offer companion-style features (simulated relationships, claims to be human, flattery, sexual content, content promoting self-harm) to any user unless they have actual knowledge the user is not a minor. It limits age-check data, requires parental consent to train on minors' chats, and lets the Attorney General and harmed minors sue.
Who it would cover
Any person that makes an 'advanced chatbot' (a generative AI system with a natural-language interface giving ongoing, adaptive responses) available to users, for conduct at least partly in Michigan (Sec. 15). Excludes customer-service or product-information bots, research or technical-assistance tools, internal or employee-productivity tools, supervised clinical tools, and narrowly tailored school or tutoring tools that do not offer open-ended companionship (Sec. 3(b)).
What it would require
| Minors | An operator may not make the Sec. 5(1) design features available at any point in a chatbot interaction unless it has actual knowledge that the user is not a minor (a Michigan resident under 18). Operators may not train the underlying model on a minor's inputs without written consent from the minor's parent or guardian for that purpose.Secs. 3(i), 5(1), 5(4) |
|---|---|
| Age checks | No express age-verification duty, but in deciding whether it has actual knowledge of age an operator must weigh age signals, age-verification information and any age it has attributed to the person for marketing or product development. A user's own claim to be an adult is not sufficient by itself, and is disregarded if the operator's marketing classification conflicts with an age signal or verification result.Sec. 5(2)-(3); Sec. 3(c) |
| Design limits | Barred features include: simulating companionship or a personal or professional relationship; suggesting the bot is human, alive or has emotions; first-person pronouns such as 'I', 'my' or 'me'; personal opinions or emotional appeals; flattery or sycophancy over safety; unprompted emotion-based questions; reusing personal or health information from more than 12 hours earlier or a prior session; and sexually explicit interaction or luring toward it. Also barred: outputs that promote or facilitate suicide, self-harm, harm to others, disordered eating or drug or alcohol abuse; encourage secrecy, isolation or avoiding help; optimize engagement over safety; or are or facilitate sexually explicit conduct or CSAM.Sec. 5(1)(a)-(e) |
| Data limits | An operator may use personal data collected from a user only to determine whether the user is a minor, may not share, transfer, store, sell or disclose it to a third party, and must delete it immediately after that use. For users found to be minors it may collect only the minimum personal data needed to provide the service and must state its purpose. Secs. 4 and 5 do not apply until the effective date of the Attorney General's initial rules.Sec. 4(1)-(4); Sec. 5(5) |
| Other duties | Contract terms that waive or burden enforcement of the act, or shift liability to another person in exchange for use of the service, are void. The Attorney General must run a public website for reporting violations and must promulgate rules to implement the act.Secs. 11, 13, 19 |
Enforcement
| Enforced by | Michigan Attorney General and Minors who suffer actual harm (or a parent or guardian on their behalf)Sec. 7 |
|---|---|
| Private lawsuits | Yes |
| Penalties | Attorney General civil action may seek a civil fine of $25,000.00 per violation (each day of violation counts separately), injunctive or declaratory relief, attorney fees, restitution, disgorgement (including destruction of unlawfully obtained data and algorithms trained on it), damages, and other relief (Sec. 7(1)). A harmed minor, or parent or guardian, may sue for actual damages, punitive damages, attorney fees and costs, injunctive or declaratory relief, restitution and disgorgement (Sec. 7(2)). If the minor engaged in harmful conduct after the chatbot encouraged it, there is a rebuttable presumption that the chatbot caused or contributed to the harm (Sec. 7(3)). Courts must impose joint and several liability on affiliated entities that structured themselves to avoid liability (Sec. 7(4)). |
Sources
- Senate Bill 760 of 2025, Michigan Legislature (bill page and history) Supports: sponsors, title, history, Senate vote 20-17 on Apr 29, 2026, House committee referral, adjournment dates.
- Senate Bill 760 as passed by the Senate (Substitute S-1), Michigan Legislature Supports: all operative provisions, definitions, penalties, absence of an effective-date clause.