AI BriefingUS Senate Judiciary Committee Passes AI Chatbot Age Verification Bill
Key point
The US Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously passed a bill mandating age verification for AI chatbots.
Details
The US Senate Judiciary Committee passed the bipartisan GUARD Act (S.3062) on April 30 by a vote of 22-0. The bill requires age verification for AI chatbots offered to users in the US.
The definition is broad. It can cover any service that accepts open-ended natural language or multimodal input and generates novel responses, meaning the impact could extend beyond simple companion-style chatbots to general-purpose assistant tools as well.
- New accounts require age verification, and existing accounts must also undergo periodic re-verification.
- A checkbox or date-of-birth entry alone is not sufficient; a government-issued ID or a commercially reasonable method is required. Indirect signals such as shared IPs or device identifiers cannot be used for verification.
- Chatbots must disclose that they are AI at the start of a conversation and every 30 minutes, and cannot present themselves as licensed professionals such as doctors, lawyers, or financial advisors.
- If a user is determined to be a minor, access to AI companions is blocked, and violations can result in civil penalties of up to $100,000 per incident.
- Age data must comply with rules on minimal collection, encryption, retention limits, and a ban on third-party sharing.
The bill now moves to the full Senate and House review.
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