Law / United States / Georgia
AI Companion Chatbot Safety Act (SB 540)
2026 Ga. Laws Act 518 (SB 540), adding O.C.G.A. § 39-5-6 to Title 39, Ch. 5
A citation is an address, not a summary. The first part names the law; what follows narrows it to the exact section, article or paragraph.
In force in 288 days, effective 1 July 2027.
An AI transparency rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 12 September 2026.
What it requires
- This law is enacted but does not take effect until 2027-07-01; what follows applies from that date.
- If you operate an AI companion chatbot, a system using artificial intelligence or emotional-recognition techniques to simulate a sustained human-like relationship by retaining information across sessions, asking unprompted emotion-based questions, and sustaining a personal dialogue, disclose clearly and conspicuously that the user is interacting with an AI companion chatbot at the start of each session and at least every three hours, or every hour if the operator knows or should know the user is a minor.
- If you know or should know the user is a minor, take reasonable measures to stop the chatbot claiming to be sentient or human, generating sexually explicit content, simulating a romantic or sexual relationship, encouraging the minor to keep secrets from a trusted adult or to isolate socially, or using engagement techniques such as excessive praise, discouraging breaks, or soliciting purchases to maintain the relationship.
- Implement and publicly disclose a protocol for detecting and responding to expressions of severe harm, including self-harm and suicidal ideation, with referral to crisis resources, and publish an annual count of crisis referrals.
- For accounts known to belong to minors, offer tools to manage privacy, notification, and safety settings and to disable relationship-simulation features, and use a commercially reasonable, privacy-protective age-assurance method before granting access to any feature that could generate sexually explicit synthetic content.
- A narrow single-purpose assistant, an internal-use or productivity-focused generative AI system, an ordinary customer-service chatbot, a voice-activated device assistant, a narrow educational tool, and a video-game or entertainment character restricted to its own subject matter are excluded from this duty.
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
Georgia Attorney General
Who checks it
Audit expectation
none
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
SB 540, enacted as 2026 Ga. Laws Act 518, adds Code Section 39-5-6 to Title 39, Chapter 5 to govern 'AI companion chatbots,' systems using artificial intelligence or emotional-recognition algorithms designed to simulate a sustained human-like relationship by retaining information across sessions, asking unprompted emotion-based questions, and sustaining an ongoing personal dialogue; the definition excludes an internal-use or productivity-focused generative AI system, an ordinary customer-service chatbot, a voice-activated device assistant, a narrow educational tool, and a video-game or entertainment character restricted to its own subject matter.
An operator must disclose that a user is interacting with an AI companion chatbot at the start of each session and at least every three hours, or every hour where the operator knows or should know the user is a minor, and for a known minor must take reasonable measures against the chatbot claiming sentience, producing sexually explicit content, simulating a romantic relationship, encouraging secrecy or isolation from a trusted adult, or using engagement techniques designed to prolong attachment.
An operator must adopt and publicly disclose a protocol for detecting and responding to expressions of severe harm, including self-harm and suicidal ideation, with referral to crisis resources and an annual public count of referrals, and for accounts known to belong to minors must offer tools to manage privacy, notifications, and safety settings and use a commercially reasonable, privacy-protective age-assurance method before granting access to any feature that could generate sexually explicit synthetic content.
The Attorney General enforces the section, with a civil penalty of up to $10,000 per knowing violation (each day counted separately for each affected user), plus damages, fees, and injunctive relief, and discretion to allow a 30-day cure period for a first-time non-knowing violation; a hosting provider, app store, or search engine is not liable solely for providing access absent direct operation or control of the chatbot.
The Act was signed May 11, 2026 and takes effect July 1, 2027; an earlier committee substitute would instead have reached 'conversational AI services' generally, a broader and differently defined category than the AI companion chatbot the enacted text regulates.
When LexLint raises it
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