The Kentucky House has advanced House Bill 455, a measure aimed at keeping mental health therapy primarily between human professionals and their clients. The bill passed the House 88-7 on Monday, reflecting broad bipartisan support for placing limits on how artificial intelligence can be used in therapeutic settings. Sponsor Rep. Kim Banta, R-Fort Mitchell, has said she wants “a human to interact with other humans when we are dealing with mental illness,” framing the legislation as a way to safeguard vulnerable patients and prevent misuse of automated systems in care.
House Bill 455 bars the use of artificial intelligence for direct therapy or making independent therapeutic decisions including creating therapy plans. The legislation is also intended to prevent chatbots from encouraging people to end their lives, which lawmakers noted has already happened in other states. An earlier version of the bill said artificial intelligence could not be used to detect emotions or mental state nor could it be used to directly interact with clients, language that drew objections from the Kentucky Psychological Association. The association warned that those provisions could unintentionally ban valuable teaching tools and therapy homework applications that support, rather than replace, clinicians.
A floor amendment removed the disputed restrictions and alleviated the Kentucky Psychological Association’s concerns. The bill now says artificial intelligence cannot be used to make independent therapeutic decisions and cannot generate therapeutic recommendations or treatment plans “without review and approval by the licensed professional.” That change, offered by Rep. Lisa Willner, D-Louisville, is intended to clarify that therapists may use artificial intelligence as “useful clinical tools” while keeping responsibility for treatment with licensed humans. Willner, who is also a psychologist, said the legislation focuses on “preserving the relationship between the therapist and the client, human to human,” arguing that such guardrails are needed after “horror stories where therapy bots have led clients to some very dark – and sometimes deadly – places.” With House passage, the bill now moves to the Senate, and if enacted Kentucky would join other states that have banned or regulated how artificial intelligence can operate in mental health care.
