The fundamental trust between a patient and a medical professional — the belief that the person giving advice is qualified, accountable and crucially, human — is now being actively eroded by technology. This growing fear of machine impersonation has forced California, the epicentre of tech innovation, to draw a definitive legal line, banning artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots from suggesting they are licensed medical providers such as doctors or psychotherapists.
The implications are staggering. Assembly Bill 489, officially signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom on Oct. 13, makes it unequivocally illegal for AI developers and companies to employ words, titles, or credentials that could mislead users into believing they are interacting with a licensed healthcare professional.
