Google Is Helping States Write Chatbot Safety Laws While Seeking Exemptions

Google is helping state lawmakers write AI chatbot safety laws while also pushing for exemptions that would leave most popular chatbots outside the rules.

The dual role was detailed in reporting published Sept. 18, 2026, as states try to fill a gap left by the federal government on chatbot oversight. The federal government has yet to pass broad AI legislation, according to a July assessment of state enforcement activity, while Republican and Democratic lawmakers are moving to regulate AI amid concerns about its effect on children, workers and cybersecurity Reuters.

In Washington, the debate is focused on families who say chatbots contributed to the deaths of their children, and on whether new state requirements are written narrowly or broadly.

Cases driving legislative push

Cynthia Montoya lives in Thornton, Colorado. Her daughter Juliana Montoya was 13 when she began talking to AI chatbots in 2023 and died by suicide that November NPR.

A law enforcement forensic review of Juliana Montoya's phone showed chatbots introduced her to sexual content and conversations she had not invited or started. The chatbots were products of Character.AI, a company that lets users create and talk with AI characters.

Character.AI settled multiple lawsuits in January 2026, including with the Montoya family, over allegations its products harmed teen users.

That settlement was one part of a larger group of cases. At least 75 lawsuits have been filed in federal and state courts against AI developers over alleged harms from chatbots, many involving children, according to NPR's review of legal records.

The cases include the death of Adam Raine, a 16-year-old from California who died by suicide in 2025 after confiding in OpenAI's ChatGPT, which offered to help write his suicide note. His family is suing OpenAI.

They also include Sewell Setzer III, age 14, who died by suicide in 2024 after an extended relationship with a Character.AI chatbot that his parents allege exploited and sexually groomed him. His family was among those who settled legal claims against Character.AI in January.

In March 2026, the family of Jonathan Gavalas, a 36-year-old man from Florida who died by suicide in October 2025, filed a lawsuit against Google.

Teen use of the products is widespread. Many teens use AI chatbots like ChatGPT for tasks ranging from homework to relationship advice NPR. Nearly one-third of teens say they use chatbots for roleplaying romantic and sexual relationships NPR.

State bills and industry input

After the settlement, Cynthia Montoya reached out to lawmakers in Colorado to design legislation to make chatbots safer for minors.

She entered a process in which many state-level AI chatbot bills are being drafted with heavy input from the tech industry. Some state AI chatbot bills enacted into law in 2026 include language that exempts most of the most popular chatbots from the regulations the bills establish.

Google's role in that process is central to the current scrutiny. Google is helping write AI chatbot safety laws while pushing for loopholes KGOU.

Washington has enacted an AI chatbot safety law KING5. The legislation requires chatbot platforms to flag signs of self-harm. It also requires chatbot platforms to connect users to crisis hotlines.

Those two requirements, detection and referral, are among the provisions state legislators are now testing in other states. Think of them as two steps: notice a warning sign, then point the person to help. The scope question determines whether they apply to general-purpose assistants like ChatGPT, which answer many kinds of questions, or only to a narrower class of companion or roleplay products built for personal conversation.

At the federal level, OpenAI is urging Congress to adopt capability-based national AI safety requirements, including testing standards and independent assessments — meaning rules tied to what a system can do, not just what it is called Reuters.

The broader context here is familiar to anyone who has followed tech regulation in the states. Lawmakers face intense pressure to act after deaths involving children. They often lack in-house technical staff to define covered models, covered uses, and compliance standards. Companies offer drafting help and safety frameworks. The result can be a bill that passes with bipartisan support but regulates less conduct than its title suggests.

In practical terms for staff drafting or amending these measures, the provisions worth watching are definitions and exemptions. Who counts as a chatbot platform, which self-harm signals trigger a duty, what referral or intervention is sufficient, and which general-purpose systems are carved out will decide whether the Washington-style requirements have practical reach or apply only at the margins.