EPIC Urges Amendments to Maryland Chatbots Bill

EPIC Counsel Kara Williams testified yesterday in front of the Maryland Senate Finance Committee on H.B. 952, a bill that seeks to regulate companion chatbots.

While EPIC supports the goals of the bill—preventing the devastating harms chatbots are causing—the bill would require significant amendments to achieve this goal. In our testimony, EPIC suggested several ways to amend the bill to make it workable, effective, and less vulnerable to First Amendment challenges.

“Big Tech companies are currently operating with very few rules and very little oversight, and they’ve proven time and time again that they cannot be trusted to self-regulate,” EPIC wrote in testimony. “Thus, it is essential that the Committee advance a bill that sets clear rules of the road for chatbot providers to protect Marylanders from chatbot harms. As currently drafted, H.B. 952 does not achieve this goal, but with amendments, it could be an important step toward securing protections for Marylanders.”

EPIC has long advocated for human-centered approach to tech regulation and has recently published model legislation on both chatbots and platform design to put this principle into workable policy.