As Tech Giants Roll Out Consumer-Facing Health AI Assemblymember Bonta’s bill would establish common sense guardrails for California consumers.
Today, Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D-Oakland), Chair of the Assembly Health Committee, sent AB 1979 to Governor Gavin Newsom. Sponsored by the California Nurses Association, the bill addresses the rapid and underregulated integration of artificial intelligence into health care. If signed into law, it would ensure consumers' privacy is protected and that the professional judgment of licensed clinicians cannot be replaced or circumvented by AI tools.
"Technology should not replace human decision-making in health care,”said Assemblymember Mia Bonta. “AI is rapidly integrating into our health care system and reshaping our personal experience with it. Protecting patient safety, keeping our professional workforce engaged, and preserving the integrity of health care requires that we not rely exclusively on AI to do things quicker and cheaper. AB 1979 does that by ensuring medical records stay protected when accessed through direct-to-consumer health chatbots, and that licensed health care professionals retain the ability to exercise professional judgment when a clinical decision support system informs their care of a patient."
If signed into law, AB 1979 requires:
- Health facilities take reasonable steps to ensure that a licensed health care professional maintains the ability to exercise professional judgment when providing patient care informed by the output of a clinical decision support system.
- Prohibits the use of a tool, system, or device using AI in health care settings to guide or instruct an unlicensed individual to do any clinical function that would require a license.
- Clarifies provisions of the Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (CMIA) to ensure that direct-to-consumer health care chatbots that seek to access individuals' medical records protect those records as otherwise required in law.
“Nursing is both an art and a science, and neither one can be automated. We assess, we evaluate, we plan, and we adjust for each patient, every shift. That work is why patients trust us in the most vulnerable moments of their lives. For nurses, this bill is about patient safety, professional integrity, and preserving trust in the human beings who provide patient care. AB 1979 protects that trust by keeping patient care decisions with the clinician, not the software,”said Cathy Kennedy, RN, President, California Nurses Association.
Earlier this year, Microsoft launched Copilot Health, a consumer-facing AI service that is not HIPPA-complaint and connects to medical records from more than 50,000 U.S. hospitals and health providers; similar products have been launched by OpenAI andAnthropic. Meanwhile, this March more than 25,000 Kaiser Permanente nurses and mental health therapists walked off the job in a one-day strike, with Northern California health workers citing Kaiser’s moves to use AI in patient screening and its resistance to contract language limiting AI from performing clinical functions.
AB 1979 directly responds to the concerns held by consumers.
- 93% of Americans have a concern about AI in healthcare, and the majority said AI makes them trust healthcare less.
- More than 80% said their trust would increase if clear accountability measures were in place.
- 77% of Americans are concerned about the privacy of personal medical information provided to AI tools; including majorities across every age group.
- 59% of Californians do not trust companies to build and use AI systems in ways that protect their personal data.
- 79% of Californians are concerned that AI systems may reinforce existing racial and gender biases.
AB 1979 is focused on preventing AI from substituting for licensed human judgment in clinical settings and ensuring that when consumer AI products touch patients’ most sensitive data, the law is unambiguous about their obligations. AB 1979 builds on Assemblymember Bonta’s consumer protection legislative efforts surrounding AI in healthcare such as AB 489, signed into law last year, prohibiting Artificial Intelligence platforms from representing “themselves” as licensed or registered health practitioners.
If signed into law AB 1979 would go into effect on January 1st, 2027.