Lines of Thought / Topic
Courts and liability: the line so far
17 developments and 13 rules, in date order. Built automatically from everything tagged with this topic.
- Rule · In forceINSEBI Reg 16C (AI responsibility)
Also on From principles to kill switches: finance AI rulebooks
- Rule · In forceUS-UTUtah mental-health chatbot law
- SEC and SDNY charge Nate founder over claims his shopping app ran on AI
AI washing has moved from disclosure warnings to fraud charges against individual founders, so overstated AI claims in fundraising now carry criminal exposure.
- California finalises civil-rights rules for AI in hiring, effective 1 Oct 2025
Employers and HR-tech vendors in the largest US labour market now face discrimination liability for screening tools without any new statute.
Also on Who audits the hiring algorithm?
- Illinois bars AI from delivering therapy without a licensed professional
Mental-health chatbot makers now face a patchwork in which the same product is banned in some US states and merely labelled in others.
- Rule · In forceUS-ILIllinois AI therapy ban (WOPR Act)
- FTC orders seven firms to explain how AI companion chatbots protect children
It put the largest consumer chatbot providers on notice that companion features and teen use are a federal consumer-protection priority, ahead of state companion-chatbot laws taking effect.
- California enacts SB 53, first US state law on frontier AI transparency
It set a disclosure-based template (rather than licensing or audits) that New York and others then copied, and binds every major US lab headquartered or selling in California.
Also on Transparency, not licensing
- Rule · In forceUS-NYNY AI companion law
- Trump executive order targets state AI laws with litigation and funding pressure
It does not void any state law by itself, but it opened a federal legal and financial campaign against state AI statutes such as Colorado's and California's.
- Rule · In forceUSState AI law preemption EO
Also on Transparency, not licensing, Can an algorithm deny your care?
- Medicare starts WISeR, an AI-assisted prior-authorisation pilot in six states
It brings algorithmic prior authorisation, long criticised in private Medicare Advantage plans, into traditional Medicare with vendors paid on savings.
Also on Can an algorithm deny your care?
- Character.AI and Google agree to settle lawsuits over teen suicides and self-harm
The first resolution of chatbot wrongful-death claims keeps product-liability theories against companion apps alive while similar suits against OpenAI continue.
- Attorney General sets up DOJ AI Litigation Task Force to challenge state AI laws
The federal government is now a litigant against state AI rules, raising the legal risk that state compliance regimes are paused or struck down.
- White House sends Congress AI framework calling for preemption of state laws
It is the administration's template for any federal preemption bill and signals which state rules, chiefly model-development laws, are most exposed.
- Rule · ProposedUSWhite House AI legislative framework
- Washington law says only a licensed clinician can deny prior-authorisation requests
Insurers and AI vendors must build human sign-off and audit trails into utilisation-review tools, state by state.
Also on Can an algorithm deny your care?
- New York finalises RAISE Act, aligning frontier AI law closely with California
With the two largest tech states now on near-matching regimes, frontier labs face a de facto US transparency standard despite federal pressure to pre-empt state AI laws.
Also on Transparency, not licensing
- Colorado repeals its AI Act before it starts, replaces it with lighter ADMT law
The first US comprehensive AI-discrimination law was gutted before taking effect, moving US hiring-AI regulation toward notice-and-explanation rather than audits.
Also on Who audits the hiring algorithm?
- Rule · Enacted, not yet in forceUS-COSB 26-189 (Colorado ADMT law)
- SEBI chief says AI/ML rules will mandate kill switches and human oversight
Brokers, fund managers and algo-trading firms in India should expect enforceable AI controls on top of SEBI's 2025 rule making them liable for AI outputs.
Also on From principles to kill switches: finance AI rulebooks
- California enacts SB 1119 requiring child-safety risk assessments for companion chatbots
Chatbot makers serving Californian minors move from disclosure duties to pre-release risk assessment and audit obligations backed by private lawsuits.
- Rule · Enacted, not yet in forceUS-CASB 1119 / Adam's Law
- Appeals court upholds Pentagon's supply-chain-risk label on Anthropic
Courts are deferring to the military on whether a lab's usage limits make it a security risk, which strengthens the government's hand in setting terms for frontier AI vendors.
Also on The Pentagon, the labs and the limits on use, Who supplies the AI-first military?, Procurement as AI policy
- Third Circuit upholds ruling that ROSS's AI training on Westlaw was not fair use
Appellate authority now holds that copying works to build a directly competing AI product can fail fair use, a precedent plaintiffs will press against generative AI developers.