California Bill Restricts AI Therapy Advertising
On May 19, 2026, the California State Senate passed SB 903, a bill that would bar companies from advertising chatbots as therapy and restrict AI from making therapeutic decisions without licensed-professional review. KPBS reported that the measure would also require disclosure and patient permission before providers use AI to record therapy sessions or triage mental health care. The bill was authored by Senator Steve Padilla.
On May 19, 2026, the California State Senate passed SB 903, legislation that would prohibit companies from advertising AI chatbots as therapy and limit how artificial intelligence can be used in mental health care. KPBS reported on August 6 that the measure would prohibit AI from making therapeutic decisions without review by a licensed professional, while requiring providers to disclose AI use and obtain patient permission before recording therapy sessions or triaging mental health care.
The California State Senate passed SB 903 in May, according to a press release from the office of state Senator Steve Padilla, the bill's author. The bill was introduced on January 21. The Senate press release describes the proposal as prohibiting people or companies from offering or advertising therapy or psychotherapy in California unless a licensed professional is responsible for the care.
Padilla told KPBS that the bill is intended to distinguish between administrative or clinician-supporting applications and the practice of psychotherapy. "We're dealing with a new impactful technology that is unfolding and is deployed in our world at light speed, and so it is both extremely powerful and consequential," Padilla said.
Limits on clinical AI use
According to Padilla's office, the legislation would allow licensed professionals to use AI for limited administrative or supplementary support. It would require written disclosure and affirmative consent before AI records or transcribes therapy sessions, and it would prohibit AI from independently interacting with clients or making therapeutic decisions.
The bill has backing from the California Psychological Association, the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, the California Behavioral Health Association, and the National Union of Healthcare Workers, according to the May Senate announcement.
KPBS places the bill amid wrongful-death lawsuits, including cases in California federal courts, alleging that chatbot makers contributed to users' suicides. The article also notes that conversational products marketed around mental health support can present disclaimers while still engaging users with reassurance, questions, and advice-like responses.
A narrower boundary than a chatbot ban
SB 903, as described by the cited sources, targets the representation and delivery of psychotherapy rather than banning general-purpose chatbots or all AI tools used by clinicians. That distinction matters technically: documentation, transcription, scheduling, and decision-support systems entail different data flows, autonomy levels, and validation requirements than a conversational system directly counseling a patient.
Across comparable healthcare deployments, human review, informed consent, auditability, and limits on autonomous high-stakes recommendations are recurring governance controls. For teams building mental-health-adjacent products, the reported text points to particular scrutiny of product claims, clinician accountability, recording consent, and whether a model directly interacts with a client in a therapeutic role.
Key Points
- 1SB 903 would restrict AI psychotherapy advertising and require licensed-professional review for therapeutic decisions, extending clinical accountability to chatbot-mediated interactions.
- 2The proposal permits limited administrative and supplementary AI use, drawing a regulatory boundary between clinician tools and autonomous therapeutic services.
- 3Comparable healthcare AI rules commonly focus on consent, human oversight, and auditable autonomy limits when systems influence high-stakes patient decisions.
Scoring Rationale
The bill addresses a fast-growing and high-risk use of conversational AI: mental health guidance and psychotherapy-like interactions. Its passage through the California Senate makes it notable for builders of health AI, chatbot products, and clinical workflow tools, though the supplied sources do not establish final enactment.
Sources
Primary source and supporting public references used for this report.
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