Idaho: AI health laws

S 1297, Conversational AI Safety Act

Requires operators of public conversational AI services to disclose clearly and conspicuously that the service is AI when reasonable persons would be misled to believe they are interacting with a human, to adopt a protocol for responding to prompts about suicidal ideation that includes reasonable efforts to refer users to crisis service providers such as a suicide hotline or crisis text line, and to apply added protections for minors, and bars operators from knowingly and intentionally causing or programming a service to state that it is designed to provide professional mental or behavioral health care.

Physician read. It places no duty on physicians. From July 1, 2027, an operator may not knowingly and intentionally program a chatbot offered to the public in Idaho to represent that it is designed to provide professional mental or behavioral health care, and must have a protocol that makes reasonable efforts to refer users who raise suicidal ideation to crisis services.

Applies to: Operators that make a conversational AI service available to the public in Idaho
Also touches: Patient disclosure of AI use; Mental health AI

Notes: Session law chapter 249 (2026), per the legislature's bill page; adds chapter 21 to title 48, Idaho Code. Amended in the Senate on the 14th Order; the House passed the engrossed bill March 26, 2026 without amendment, so S1297E1 is the text as passed. Section 2 sets the July 1, 2027 effective date. The attorney general enforces it through injunctions and civil penalties of $1,000 per violation, up to $500,000 per operator, or actual damages if greater; there is no private right of action. Customer service, business-internal, enterprise, narrow-topic, voice assistant and limited video game bots are excluded. Minors' protections, which apply when the operator has actual knowledge or reasonable certainty that a user is under 18, include recurring AI disclosures, no unpredictable engagement rewards and measures against sexual content and claims of sentience or emotional dependence.