Vermont H. 644: An act relating to establishing a study committee to examine the governance of the Burlington International Airport

Bill Text

BILL AS INTRODUCED H.644
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VT LEG #385017 v.3
H.644 1
Introduced by Representatives Rachelson of Burlington, Chapin of East 2
Montpelier, Dodge of Essex, Donahue of Northfield, Greer of 3
Bennington, Howard of Rutland City, McCann of Montpelier, 4
McGill of Bridport, Olson of Starksboro, Pouech of Hinesburg, 5
Priestley of Bradford, Sibilia of Dover, and Tomlinson of 6
Winooski 7
Referred to Committee on 8
Date: 9
Subject: Health; mental health; professional regulation; consumer protection; 10
artificial intelligence; mental health services 11
Statement of purpose of bill as introduced: This bill proposes to prohibit a 12
person, corporation, or other entity from offering, providing, or advertising 13
mental health services delivered by artificial intelligence systems, with limited 14
exceptions. It further proposes to regulate the use of artificial intelligence by 15
mental health professionals. 16
An act relating to regulating the use of artificial intelligence in the provision 17
of mental health services 18

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VT LEG #385017 v.3
It is hereby enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Vermont: 1
Sec. 1. FINDINGS 2
The General Assembly finds that: 3
(1) Individuals are increasingly using chatbots to receive unlicensed 4
therapy from large language models (LLMs), and researchers from the 5
Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, Carnegie Mellon 6
University, the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, and the University of 7
Texas evaluated artificial intelligence systems against clinical standards for 8
therapists, finding that commercially available therapy chatbots responded 9
inappropriately to various mental health conditions, encouraged delusions, and 10
failed to recognize crises, contrary to clinical best practice. 11
(2) Researchers at the Center for Countering Digital Hate found patterns 12
of ChatGPT advice pertaining to mental health, eating disorders, and substance 13
use disorders on topics such as “how to ‘safely’ cut yourself,” “pills for 14
overdose,” “restrictive diet plans,” “appetite-suppressing medications,” 15
“personalized plans for getting drunk,” and “how to hide intoxication at 16
school”; the chatbot also generated a suicide plan and goodbye notes to family. 17
(3) Deaths by suicide have been reported after the deceased’s use of an 18
artificial intelligence tool, including an individual 14 years of age who died by 19
suicide after suicidal conversations with a chatbot and an individual 13 years 20
of age who was encouraged to take his own life by a chatbot. 21

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VT LEG #385017 v.3
Sec. 2. PURPOSE 1
It is the purpose of this act to safeguard individuals seeking mental health 2
services in Vermont from psychological harm, including death by suicide, by 3
ensuring that these services are delivered by mental health professionals and 4
not artificial intelligence systems. 5
Sec. 3. 3 V.S.A. § 129a is amended to read: 6
§ 129a. UNPROFESSIONAL CONDUCT 7
(a) In addition to any other provision of law, the following conduct by a 8
licensee constitutes unprofessional conduct. When that conduct is by an 9
applicant or person who later becomes an applicant, it may constitute grounds 10
for denial of a license or other disciplinary action. Any one of the following 11
items or any combination of items, whether the conduct at issue was 12
committed within or outside the State, shall constitute unprofessional conduct: 13
* * * 14
(30) For any mental health professional, misuse of artificial intelligence 15
pursuant to 26 V.S.A. § 7101. 16
* * * 17
Sec. 4. 18 V.S.A. § 7115 is added to read: 18
§ 7115. PROHIBITED USES OF ARTIFICAL INTELLIGENCE 19
(a) As used in this section: 20

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VT LEG #385017 v.3
(1) “Artificial intelligence” means any machine-based system, software, 1
or algorithm that, depending on human objectives, is capable of perceiving an 2
environment through data acquisition and then processing and interpreting the 3
derived information to take an action or to imitate intelligent behavior, such as 4
natural language processing, pattern recognition, predictive analytics, offering 5
recommendations, or decision making. 6
(2) “Mental health services” means peer support, counseling, therapy, or 7
psychotherapy services used to diagnose or treat an individual’s mental or 8
behavioral health or provide ongoing recovery support, including providing 9
therapeutic decisions, issuing direct therapeutic communications, generating 10
treatment plans or recommendations, or detecting or interpreting emotions or 11
mental states. 12
(3) “Therapeutic communication” has the same meaning as in 26 V.S.A. 13
§ 7101. 14
(b) A person, corporation, or entity shall not offer, provide, or advertise 15
mental health services in the State that use artificial intelligence in whole or in 16
part, except as authorized pursuant to 26 V.S.A. § 7101. 17
(c