DENVER — Colorado lawmakers want to limit how mental healthcare professionals can use artificial intelligence in psychotherapy.
HB26-1195 would ban those professionals from using AI to talk with patients or to generate treatment plans and other recommendations without another mental health professional’s approval.
The bill would also ban mental health professionals from using AI to detect a client or patient’s emotions or mental state, and require informed consent if a client’s therapeutic session is recorded or transcribed by AI.
Denver7 spoke with Colorado Rep. Gretchen Rydin, D-District 38, one of the bill’s sponsors.
“People are turning to Open AI or other chat bots to get advice, and sometimes it's being misconstrued as professional advice,” Rep. Rydin said. “It looks like that, it sounds like that, and in many ways, clinically, it is that, which we know is not safe.”
Rep. Rydin is also a licensed clinical social worker and addiction counselor.
“We've seen some people in my profession want to roll out ways to do therapy and then rolling them back, because [they’re] realizing, ‘Hey, no, using artificial intelligence to mimic therapy is not safe and not helpful,’” Rep. Rydin said.
She believes there are still “perfectly appropriate” ways for clinicians to use the technology like for scheduling and taking notes.
“We don't want anything to, you know, delay people getting care,” Rep. Rydin said. “And I think AI certainly could be helpful for that, but we still got to do it safely… The actual psychotherapy itself has to be between human to human.”
Unlike other AI debates happening at the Colorado Capitol, this bill has bipartisan support. It passed unanimously 13-0 through committee last week. Rep. Rydin attributes that success to the bill’s narrow focus on regulating one small but important piece of AI.
The bill is expected for debate in the Colorado House of Representatives sometime this week.
