Utah HB 452 Mental Health Chatbot Law

Utah HB 452, enacted as Chapter 269 in the 2025 General Session, created Utah Code Chapter 13-72a and related professional-licensing provisions. It took effect May 7, 2025. A “mental health chatbot” is generative AI that engages a user in conversations similar to confidential communications with a licensed therapist, where the supplier represents—or a reasonable person would believe—the tool can provide therapy or help manage or treat mental-health conditions. Scripted content such as guided mindfulness and tools that only connect a user to a human therapist are excluded by the statutory definition. The law’s first pillar is disclosure: suppliers must clearly and conspicuously disclose that the user is interacting with AI, including before access, at the beginning of an interaction after the user has not used it for more than seven days, and when asked. Second, conversational ads for a specific product or service must be clearly identified and disclose sponsorship, affiliation or promotional agreements. A supplier may not use the user’s input to choose or personalize such ads, subject to a narrow allowance for advertising the chatbot itself. Third, suppliers may not sell or share Utah users’ individually identifiable health information or user input with third parties, with listed exceptions including qualifying research and user-requested sharing with a provider or health plan. The law authorizes Utah’s Division of Consumer Protection to enforce its provisions. A supplier may file a written policy with that Division describing the chatbot’s purpose and limitations, therapist involvement, testing, monitoring, crisis procedures, referrals and security/privacy practices to support an affirmative defense in specified actions. The supplier must comply with the filed policy and maintain required documentation; this is not automatic immunity. SB 38’s enrolled text schedules an amendment to the enforcement section effective May 6, 2026; the HB 452 code states that the Division director may impose an administrative fine up to $2,500 per violation. The statute preserves Division enforcement and does not license the chatbot.