HB5044
CHATBOT PROVIDER-LIABILITY
TL;DR
Illinois Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz introduced a bill that would treat chatbots as 'products' under strict liability law, meaning any company that creates or distributes a chatbot could be sued for user injuries even if they took every reasonable precaution. Users could sue for damages, injunctions, and attorney's fees in state or federal court, with no requirement that they had a direct relationship with the chatbot provider.
How This Might Impact Your Business
Any company deploying chatbots to Illinois users (customer service bots, AI assistants, mental health apps, tutoring tools, sales bots) faces strict liability, meaning lawsuits can proceed even when the company followed best practices in design and safety testing.
The definition of 'chatbot' is broad, covering text, audio, image, or video AI that simulates conversation, so voice assistants, avatar-based agents, and generative AI interfaces are all in scope.
Liability extends up the supply chain: foundation model developers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google) and chatbot platform providers can be sued by end users they never contracted with, similar to how a car manufacturer can be sued by a driver who bought used.
No size threshold or small business exemption is included, so startups and Fortune 500 companies face identical exposure.
Plaintiffs can recover actual damages, injunctive relief (potentially forcing product changes or shutdowns), and attorney's fees, which incentivizes plaintiff's law firms to bring cases.
'Injury' is not defined in the excerpt, leaving open whether emotional distress, financial harm from bad advice, or reputational damage from hallucinations would qualify.
The bill is currently stalled in the Rules Committee (Rule 19(a) re-referral typically signals limited near-term movement), but the strict liability framework could be revived or copied by other states.
What Should You Do
Have your legal team map every customer-facing or employee-facing chatbot your company operates in Illinois, including third-party tools embedded in your website or app.
Review your vendor contracts with AI providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, chatbot platforms) for indemnification clauses, since this bill would expose vendors to direct user lawsuits regardless of contract.
Ask your insurance broker whether your current tech E&O or product liability policy covers strict liability claims from AI outputs; most policies were not written with this exposure in mind.
Assign someone to track HB5044 and similar chatbot liability bills in other states (California, New York, and Texas are likely to follow); set a calendar reminder to check status quarterly.
Document your chatbot safety testing, guardrails, and content moderation now, because even if strict liability applies, thorough records will help with damages arguments and settlement leverage.
Who It Affects
Sponsors
Status Timeline
introduced
Rule 19(a) / Re-referred to Rules Committee
February 4, 2026