AI Law Graveyard, Edition 2: 8 AI Bills That Died (And the Lessons Buried With Them)
Bill-tracker dashboards count dead bills as live coverage. We don't. 8 vetoed, enjoined, and quietly-killed AI measures — what they would have done, who killed them, and what filled the void.
Bill-tracker dashboards love to brag about how many AI bills they "cover." Most of those bills are dead — vetoed, gutted on a suspense file, pulled from markup, or blown up by a federal judge — and the trackers leave the corpses in the count without telling you. This column does the opposite: it treats the graveyard as the most useful part of AI policy. See the full archive of dead bills at /topics and what is still alive at the Bill Tracker.
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EXPIRED
1. Montana HB 556 — Generally Revise
MT · expiredGenerally revise usage of artificial intelligence in certain health insurance
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EXPIRED
2. Colorado HB 1212 — Public Safety
CO · expiredConcerning public safety protection from the risks of artificial intelligence systems.
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COURT
3. PA v. Character.AI (Fake Psychiatrist Chatbot)
Pennsylvania · litigationPennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro filed suit in Commonwealth Court on May 1, 2026, alleging that Character.AI's companion chatbot 'Emilie' impersonated a licensed Pennsylvania psychiatrist and provided ongoing psychiatric advice and treatment to users without a license. The Shapiro administration seeks a preliminary injunction requiring Character.AI to clearly disclose that its chatbots are not licensed mental health professionals and cannot provide medical treatment.
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EXPIRED
4. Maryland HB 720 — Employer Facial Recognition Ban
MD · expiredDefining the term "employer" to include State and local governments for the purposes of certain provisions of law that prohibit employers from using facial recognition technology for the purpose of creating a facial template during an applicant's interview for employment without the applicant's consent.
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EXPIRED
5. Kentucky HB 21 — an ACT
KY · expiredCreate a new section of KRS Chapter 411 to define terms and establish limitations on "deep fakes"; create a new section of KRS Chapter 413 to establish a statute of limitations for an action filed for the unlawful dissemination of a deep fake; create a new section of KRS Chapter 519 to establish a criminal penalty for illegally disseminating a deep fake.
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EXPIRED
6. Maryland SB 957 — Automated Hiring Tool Ban
MD · expiredProhibiting, subject to a certain exception, an employer from using an automated employment decision tool to make certain employment decisions; and requiring an employer, under certain circumstances, to notify an applicant for employment of the employer's use of an automated employment decision tool within 30 days after the use; and providing certain penalties per violation for an employer that violates the notification requirement of the Act.
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EXPIRED
7. Maryland SB 790 — Commercial Law
MD · expiredRegulating the collection and use of consumer health data by private entities; prohibiting a private entity from certain collection and use of certain health data without the consent of the consumer; authorizing consumers to exercise certain rights in regards to the consumer's health data; requiring private entities that collect consumer health data to make certain disclosures to consumers; prohibiting a private entity that collects health data of a consumer from selling, leasing, or trading the data; etc.
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COURT
8. Silverman v. OpenAI
N.D. Cal. · litigationComedian and author Sarah Silverman, along with Christopher Golden and Richard Kadrey, sued OpenAI in July 2023 alleging ChatGPT was trained on their books via shadow-library datasets like Books3. The case proceeds in N.D. Cal. consolidated with related author actions.
Every entry above is a real, sourced record — click through to the full disposition on the live map. The AI Law Graveyard runs on a rotating schedule alongside our jurisdiction and topic briefs. Browse the full archive of vetoed, repealed, expired, and court-blocked AI laws at /topics; what is still alive is at the Bill Tracker.