by On September 28, California’s governor signed a number of bills into law, including to regulate the use of artificial intelligence (“AI”) in healthcare settings. This included AB 3030, which regulates the use of AI by certain California-licensed healthcare facilities, and SB 1223, which amends the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) to cover “neural data.” Below we discuss each bill in turn.
AB3030
AB 3030 requires a healthcare facility, clinic, physician practice, or group practice office that uses generative AI to generate written or oral patient communications related to patient clinical information to provide certain disclosures to patients.
Specifically, AB 3030 requires the provision of “[a] disclaimer that indicates to the patient that the communication was generated by generative artificial intelligence.” This disclaimer must be provided in a specific format depending on the method by which the AI communicates with the patient:
- For written communications via physical and digital media (e.g. letters, emails), the disclaimer must appear prominently at the beginning of each communication;
- For written communications that involve only continuous interaction (e.g., chat-based telehealth), the disclaimer must be prominently displayed during the interaction;
- For audio communications, the disclaimer should be provided verbally at the beginning and end of the interaction; And
- For video communications, the disclaimer should be prominently displayed during the interaction.
In addition, regardless of the communication method, AB 3030 requires that AI-generated patient communications regarding patient clinical information include clear instructions describing how a patient can contact a healthcare provider, healthcare facility employee, clinic, physician’s office, or office of a group practice, or another suitable person.
However, AB 3030 does not apply to all patient communications generated using AI. AI-generated communications that are read and reviewed by a human-licensed or certified health care provider are not subject to these disclosure requirements in AB 3030. In addition, AB 3030 does not regulate the use of AI for administrative matters. AB 3030 only applies to communications regarding “clinical patient information,” which means “information regarding a patient’s health status.” . . [and] does not include administrative matters, including but not limited to appointment scheduling, billing or other administrative or business matters.”
SB 1223
SB 1223 changes the CCPA’s definition of “sensitive personal information” to include “a consumer’s neural data.” “Neural data” is defined as “information generated by measuring the activity of a consumer’s central or peripheral nervous system and not derived from non-neural information.” With the enactment of SB 1223, California becomes the second state, after Colorado, to amend its consumer privacy law to regulate neural data.
