AB 1609: Customer service chatbots.

Existing law prohibits a person from using a bot, as defined, to mislead another person about the bots artificial identity to incentivize the purchase or sale of goods or services, among other things. Existing law requires an operator of a companion chatbot, as defined, to provide a disclosure regarding the companion chatbots artificial identity if a reasonable person interacting with the companion chatbot would be misled to believe that the person is interacting with a human.

This bill would prohibit a large private business, as defined, from representing that a customer service chatbot is a human. The bill would also require the large private business to provide certain disclosures if a reasonable person interacting with the chatbot would be misled to believe they are interacting with a human.

This bill would require a large private business to provide a customer service feature allowing consumers customers to contact a customer service agent for at least 10 hours per day during its regular business hours and to hours, as defined. This bill would require large private businesses to make a good faith effort to connect a customer to an agent within 15 minutes after a request for human customer service is made, as specified. or schedule an appointment with the customer, as specified. For online chatbot customer service platforms and telephonic customer service platforms, the bill would require a large private business to make a good faith effort to ensure the customers who require customer service assistance and that the business comply with specified requirements including, among others, limiting limit initial and cumulative telephonic hold times, and would require certain large private businesses to post prescribed contact information on their internet website.

The bill would authorize a public prosecutor to enforce these provisions, and would make a large private business that violates these provisions liable for a penalty of up to $5,000 for an initial violation, and $10,000 for each subsequent violation. The bill would waive its requirements due to unforeseen circumstances beyond the reasonable control of a large private business, and would exempt a large private business that provides services subject to, and is in compliance with, a specified public utilities law. The bill would further exempt exclusive business lines and communications by a nonprofit general acute care hospital, as specified. specified, and a consumer reporting agency, as prescribed. The bill would define terms for these purposes.