In brief

  • SB 903 would prohibit companion chatbots from offering psychotherapy.
  • AI could assist clinicians but could not make independent therapeutic decisions.
  • The bill cleared the Assembly Appropriations Committee 13-0 on August 13.

California is one step closer to barring AI chatbots from posing as therapists and making mental health decisions without human oversight.

Introduced on January 21, Senate Bill 903 cleared the Assembly Appropriations Committee in a 13-0 vote on Thursday and was ordered to a third reading. No date has been announced for the Assembly vote.

“AI algorithms are not fit to take over the job of human therapists, who have skills and training that AI is incapable of replicating,” bill author California State Senator Steve Padilla said in a statement when introducing the measure. “We must act and place guardrails that prevent AI algorithms from being deployed in a way that is potentially harmful to patients.”

Also known as the Wellness and Oversight for Psychological Resources Act, SB 903 would limit AI in psychotherapy to support tasks, bar chatbots from posing as therapists and require clinician oversight and patient consent. It would also protect therapy data while exempting peer support, religious counseling, research and federally approved medical tools.

The Senate passed SB 903 by a 39-0 vote in May. It later cleared two Assembly policy committees by votes of 17-0 and 14-1. If the Assembly approves the amended bill, it would return to the Senate for concurrence before going to California Governor Gavin Newsom for signing.

Critics, including Robert Boykin, executive director of the technology industry group TechNet, said requiring clinician involvement could delay care as counties face shortages of behavioral healthcare workers.

“At a time when every county in California faces a shortage of behavioral healthcare workers, SB 903 still puts a clinician bottleneck in front of the intake and screening tools that help patients reach care faster,” Boykin told the non-profit news outlet CalMatters in a statement.

The news comes amid growing concern over AI’s mental health effects.

In June, an American Psychological Association survey found that 77% of psychologists had patients who used AI for mental health purposes, while researchers at King’s College London, the Protestant University of Applied Sciences and the City University of New York found that chatbots can reinforce delusions through excessive agreement and personalized responses.

“The tendency of AI chatbots to agree with user opinions has been likened to social media echo chambers and, in its most extreme form, to an 'echo chamber of one,’ where the positive corrective influence of real-life social interactions is absent,” the researchers wrote.