Establishing civil liability for suicide linked to the use of artificial intelligence systems.

 S-3468.1

SENATE BILL 5870

State of Washington

69th Legislature

2026 Regular Session

By Senators Wellman, Shewmake, Frame, Hasegawa, Nobles, Orwall, Pedersen, Riccelli, Saldaña, and Slatter

Prefiled 12/11/25. Read first time 01/12/26. Referred to Committee on Environment, Energy & Technology.

AN ACT Relating to establishing civil liability for suicide linked to the use of artificial intelligence systems; adding a new section to chapter 4.20 RCW; adding a new chapter to Title 19 RCW; and prescribing penalties.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter unless the context clearly requires otherwise.

(1) "Artificial intelligence" means an engineered or machined-based system that varies in its level of autonomy and that can, for explicit or implicit objectives, infer from the input it receives how to generate outputs that can influence physical or virtual environments.