Regulatory Provisions - Artificial Intelligence Companion Models Act (2026 S 2195 Substitute A / H 7350 Substitute A)

Record US-RI-01 · 2026 S 2195 Sub A / H 7350 Sub A

Issued by: Rhode Island General Assembly (2026 session); signed by Governor Daniel McKee
Jurisdiction: Rhode Island (US)
Level · region: Sub-national · North America
Country: United States
Published / adopted: 2026-06-22
In force: 2027-01-01
Language: English
Official identifier: 2026 S 2195 Sub A / H 7350 Sub A

Summary

Requires operators of AI companion models to maintain protocols for detecting expressions of suicidal ideation, self-harm or harm to others and to refer such users immediately to crisis services; to notify users at the start of use and every three hours thereafter that they are not communicating with a human; and, from 1 Jul 2027, to file annual reports with the Attorney General. The Attorney General may investigate, sue and seek injunctions, with civil penalties of up to USD 15,000 per day. Customer-service, research and internal business tools are exempt.

Safety topics

child safetytransparency & labellingincident reportingaccountability & liability

Status notes

Signed by the Governor on 22 Jun 2026 and effective 1 Jan 2027. The Senate passed Substitute A as amended on 21 May 2026 and the House passed it in concurrence on 8 Jun 2026; the House companion bill is H 7350. Enacted alongside two Rhode Island health-care AI laws of June 2026: S 2570 (notification when AI documents clinical visits) and S 2197 (Oversight of Artificial Intelligence Technology in Mental Health Care Act, barring AI from making independent therapeutic decisions), which are not recorded separately.

Sources

Secondary source: https://www.nixonpeabody.com/insights/alerts/2026/07/20/rhode-island-joins-the-wave-of-states-regulating-ai-in-healthcare-and-ai-companion-tools

Local copy

Partial (secondary source only). No official URL is recorded; only the secondary source was saved. Last attempt 2026-10-16 11:39:43 UTC

Secondary source (third-party copy, not published) archive/US-RI-01/2026-10-12/secondary.html

Retrieved 2026-10-12 04:49:06 UTC

SHA-256 ac1542d23a324e37b0ae35323b0001694af07d336f1220a1f2d6275c0204362e

Verification

Not confirmed on an official page; the record rests on secondary sources. Check it before citing. checked 2026-10-14 · search-confirmed

CAUTION: no official copy is stored. The stored sources are the Nixon Peabody client alert of 20 July 2026 (archive/US-RI-01/2026-10-12/secondary.html), which confirms the Act's name, S 2195, signature by Governor McKee in June 2026, the 1 January 2027 effective date and the provisions in the summary, and the FastDemocracy tracker page for S 2195 (archive/_runs/2026-10-14-refresh-ids-ca-on-01-coe-01-int-15-us-ca/US-RI-01/extra-8f6f90705c/), which reproduces the Legislature's actions (Senate passage of Sub A as amended on 21 May 2026, House passage in concurrence on 8 June 2026, signed by the Governor on 22 June 2026). Both are secondary. The bill texts on webserver.rilegislature.gov and the General Assembly's press release could not be stored (connections refused), and no Governor or Attorney General page on the Act was found, so the effective date rests on the law-firm alert alone.

Second check: Independent check by Claude Code (claude-sonnet-5-5), 2026-10-14: 9 field(s) supported, fixes applied to notes.

History

2026-10-14notes: Reported signed on 22 Jun 2026 and effective 1 Jan 2027. Enacted alongside two R → Signed by the Governor on 22 Jun 2026 and effective 1 Jan 2027. The Senate passe — The signing date is now in a stored copy (tracker action '06/22/2026 Signed by Governor'), so 'Reported signed' loses its hedge; added the Senate and House passage dates and the companion bill from the stored action history.2026-10-14-refresh-ids-ca-on-01-coe-01-int-15-us-ca · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)

Related records

California SB 243 (companion chatbots) California (US) · In force

Connecticut Public Act 26-15 (SB 5, AI and online safety) Connecticut (US) · Partially in force

Georgia AI companion chatbot law (SB 540) Georgia (US) · Adopted, not yet in force

Citation

Rhode Island General Assembly (2026 session); signed by Governor Daniel McKee. Regulatory Provisions - Artificial Intelligence Companion Models Act (2026 S 2195 Substitute A / H 7350 Substitute A) [2026 S 2195 Sub A / H 7350 Sub A]. 2026-06-22. Status: Adopted, not yet in force; verified 2026-10-14 (level C). Local copy archive/US-RI-01/2026-10-12/secondary.html retrieved 2026-10-12 04:49:06 UTC, SHA-256 ac1542d23a324e37b0ae35323b0001694af07d336f1220a1f2d6275c0204362e. Every AI Policy Ever, version 1.18 (snapshot 2026-10-18), record US-RI-01.

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