Oregon and Washington Join California in Enacting Companion Chatbot Laws
Continuing the trend of new state-by-state artificial intelligence (“AI”) regulations, Oregon and Washington both enacted laws regulating AI companion chatbots in March 2026, following California’s lead . Oregon’s SB 1546 and Washington’s HB 2225 will both take effect on January 1, 2027. This Legal Update provides an overview of these new laws and summarizes the key differences from California’s companion chatbot law. I. WASHINGTON HB 2225 Similar to California’s companion chatbot law, Washington’s HB 2225 defines “AI companion chatbot” as an “artificial intelligence system with a natural language interface that provides adaptive, human-like responses to user inputs, including by exhibiting anthropomorphic features, and is able to sustain a relationship across multiple interactions.” HB 2225 broadly excludes: chatbots for business functions (such as technical assistance and customer service) “if such bot does not sustain a relationship across multiple interactions and generate outpu...