Legislature tackles AI regulation as lawmakers warn part-time session can’t keep pace

Arizona legislators are struggling to keep regulations on pace with the rapid evolution of generative artificial intelligence — something that some of them say isn’t possible for a part-time legislature. At the same time, they’re working to pass legislation aimed at educating Arizonans about its use. 

On Thursday, the Arizona House of Representatives’ Artificial Intelligence and Innovation Committee passed several bills that aim to prevent minors from engaging in romantic relationships with AI chatbots, keep private conversations with chatbots from being used as evidence in court proceedings and provide AI education to Arizonans. 

House Bill 2311, sponsored by Rep. Tony Rivero, a Peoria Republican, would require operators of AI chatbots to disclose to minor users that they are using AI and would require them to employ “reasonable measures” to prevent the AI from supplying sexual content or engaging in simulations of emotional dependence or romantic or sexual innuendo. 

Rivero’s proposal comes after a survey from the Center for Democracy and Technology in 2025 found that about 20% of high school students said they or someone they know had a romantic relationship with an AI chatbot. Another 42% either used AI for companionship or knew someone who did. 

The legislation would also require AI chatbot operators to provide minors with resources for help if they inquire about suicidal ideation or self-harm. There have been multiple instances of teens expressing suicidal intentions to AI chatbots before they ultimately took their own lives. ChatGPT, owned by OpenAI, even offered to write a suicide note for a 16-year-old boy and advised him not to tell his family about his self-destructive thoughts. 

The operators would be charged an $1,000 penalty for each violation of the requirements, not to exceed $500,000. 

“The approach does not shut teens and children out of the generative AI altogether, but it rather enables them to learn about and benefit from these technologies responsibly and with guardrails in place,” Rivero said during the hearing. 

Collin Larson, a manager for Google who leads a team building AI products, told the committee members that Google supported the proposal and already employs all of the guardrails outlined in it. 

The members of the committee unanimously approved Rivero’s proposal. 

House Bill 2410, sponsored by Rep. Alexander Kolodin, R-Scottsdale, would make a person’s communication with AI privileged — and kept out of court proceedings — if the same conversation with a human professional would already be considered privileged. 

Conversations between attorneys and their clients, health care providers and their patients and members of clergy and their parishioners are all privileged. 

“The concept is simple,” Kolodin said. “For somebody to get the best medical treatment, for somebody to get the best legal advice, they have to be able to have a full and frank conversation and lay out all of the applicable facts, including things that they might have done wrong, maybe things that they didn’t even know that they had done wrong. And that is where the concept of privilege comes from.” 

Kolodin, who is an attorney, said that he believes the legislature, because of its schedule, is not well positioned to regulate AI since it evolves so rapidly. He said that HB2410 would give the courts a chance to develop case law surrounding AI and privileged communications. 

The committee approved the proposal by a vote of 6-0. 

Kolodin also sponsored House Bill 2409, which would create a statewide, voluntary AI education program that would be run by the Arizona Department of Education. The program would provide classes throughout the state during the summer, open to all Arizonans. Volunteer instructors would teach students “how to navigate the digital world safely and with a critical eye.” 

The program would teach digital literacy, how to identify AI-generated content and how to protect privacy online. 

Kolodin’s proposal would also require the creation of a curriculum for the use of AI by small businesses and entrepreneurs to teach them about things like creating efficiencies and marketing. 

Kolodin said that HB2409 was inspired by both meetings on AI that he held after the legislature adjourned last year and by his own experience running a small law firm. 

“The consensus appeared to be that between 40% to 60%-plus of jobs are going away in the next 10 years,” he said. “And that will be a catastrophe for the state of Arizona if we do not have an alternative way for people to be self-sufficient and earn their livelihood as citizens of a free country should.” 

The International Monetary Fund found that about 40% of jobs globally are “exposed to AI” and that rises to 60% in advanced economies. About half of that 60% of jobs are expected to be supplemented by AI while the other half could suffer from replacement by AI and reduced demand. 

Kolodin said that using AI in his law practice has allowed him not to hire another lawyer to help with his caseload. 

“I can get twice as much work done in a day as I could 5 years ago,” he said. “That’s not an exaggeration. I really am twice as efficient because of the AI tools that my law firm uses.” 

Kolodin claimed that his proposal would help people take advantage of the upsides of AI use. 

HB2409 passed the Artificial Intelligence and Innovation Committee along party lines, with Democrats voting against it because it included no funding for the program to be run by the Education Department, which is already strapped for cash.

Also on Thursday, the Artificial Intelligence and Innovation Committee passed House Bill 4005 by a vote of 4-2. Sponsored by Rep. Nick Kupper, R-Surprise, the proposal would require public and charter schools to teach students about “ethical, moral and educational” uses of AI beginning in the 2027-2028 school year. 

It would give school districts the option of incorporating learning about AI into existing curricula or creating a separate course dedicated to AI. 

“If we are not giving some level of AI instruction to our students, we’re going to be failing our students and not preparing them for the real world, the real new world,” Kupper said. 

Kolodin said that his AI education proposal included classes outside of school time because he’d heard from parents that they didn’t want it incorporated into regular class time to ensure that students develop important critical thinking skills instead of an overreliance on AI.