Artificial intelligence in mental health care
California therapy sessions get a human-only rule
The Padilla bill would bar licensed professionals from using AI as supplementary support in therapy or psychotherapy when the session is recorded or transcribed. Patients would have to be told when AI is involved.
California would put a clearer limit on AI in mental health care under SB 903. The bill also blocks anyone from offering therapy or psychotherapy through internet-based AI unless a licensed professional is running it.
- SB 903 would keep AI out of supplementary support during therapy and psychotherapy.
- California already requires some AI-generated patient messages to disclose themselves.
- The bill would affect licensed mental health professionals and their patients.
- The goal is a clearer human line in clinical care.
- Steve Padilla’s SB 903 asks a simple but loaded question: when does artificial intelligence stop being a tool and start becoming part of treatment?
In California, Sen. Steve Padilla’s SB 903 asks a simple but loaded question: when does artificial intelligence stop being a tool and start becoming part of treatment? The bill would prohibit a licensed professional from using AI to assist in providing supplementary support in therapy or psychotherapy when that support is tied to a client’s therapeutic services.
For patients, that matters because therapy depends on trust, judgment and the sense that another person is carrying the clinical responsibility. SB 903 would keep that line sharper, even as software keeps spreading into health care.
A harder line in the therapy room
The proposal is not written as a ban on every piece of software a mental health office might use. Its target is narrower: AI used as supplementary support in the actual delivery of therapy or psychotherapy. In other words, the bill would keep treatment human-led, not machine-assisted, when it comes to the clinical relationship itself.
That approach builds on California’s existing AI rules, which already require some AI-generated patient communications from a health facility, clinic, physician’s office or group practice to include a disclaimer and instructions for reaching a human provider, employee or other appropriate person. SB 903 would move the boundary deeper into the care setting, not just the paperwork around it.
What patients would notice
For people in treatment, the practical effect is a cleaner answer to a question that can be hard to see from the outside: who, exactly, is helping shape the care? The bill would make it harder for AI to sit inside that role, even in a supporting capacity tied to therapy or psychotherapy.
Available vote records show the bill advanced without recorded no votes.