JEFFERSON CITY — The House Committee on Emerging Issues voted down a bill on artificial intelligence regulations Tuesday afternoon.
Senate Bill 1012, sponsored by Sen. Joe Nicola, R-Grain Valley, aimed to establish several provisions regulating AI use in elections and health care.
The bill also would have established the “AI Non-Sentience and Responsibility Act,” which states that AI systems are not considered a person and that all harm caused by AI is the responsibility of the user of that system.
For elections, the bill would have required any political advertisements or communication campaigns that used AI to include a disclaimer, and any media that failed to include a disclaimer would be guilty of a Class A misdemeanor.
The bill additionally included provisions for mental health and interactions between users of AI chatbots, which provide human-like responses to user input. The provisions would include requirements for AI chatbots to provide users with hotlines and resources.
The act would have required operators of companion chatbots to make annual reports to the Missouri Department of Mental Health regarding crisis interactions and instances of suicidal ideation by users.
“This is not anti-innovation,” Nicola said. “It is accountability, transparency and keeping powerful tools under human control.”
In opposition, Camellia Peterson of Americans for Prosperity said the bill goes too far and includes unnecessary guidelines.
“It creates an overly broad regulatory framework that risks chilling innovation, creating unnecessary government overreach,” Peterson said. “It does include a wide range of unrelated mandates, liability standards, speech restrictions ... there’s not very much clarity on, as Representative Fuchs said, how you would enforce or have compliance on this issue.”
Also in opposition was Jared Hankinson with the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, raising complaints about the drafting errors and filler language in the legislation.
The bill was killed on a unanimous vote.
Missouri does not have extensive state laws that regulate AI.