Reps. Cockley, Mathews introduce bill to punish AI companies for lethal chatbots as advocates raise the alarm
Ohio lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill to protect Ohioans from artificial intelligence chatbots, as the advocates warn that chatbots are the reason why some minors commit suicide.
House Bill 524, sponsored by state Reps. Christine Cockley, D-Columbus, and Ty Mathews, R-Hancock County, would penalize AI companies when chatbots promote self-harm.
The bill would authorize the state’s attorney general to investigate, issue cease-and-desist orders, and penalize companies by requiring them to pay up to $50,000 per violation, with the proceeds directed to Ohio’s 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline Fund, which supports mental health crisis response services statewide.
The bill awaits further committee action.
Tony Coder, CEO of the Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation, told the Ohio House Innovation and Technology Committee on Tuesday that he has heard from at least four Ohio parents whose children committed suicide after an AI chatbot wrote a suicide letter for them, according to Cleveland.com.
Coder said that it is impossible to understand the full scale of the recent suicidality rates caused by AI chatbots because the latest data from the Ohio Department of Health dates back only to 2023. According to the data, in 2023, 1,777 Ohioans died by suicide, with suicide being the second leading cause of death among children between 10 and 14 years old. Coder said that a child commits suicide every 36 hours in Ohio.
Coder then said that without the emotional support from their loved ones, people are way more likely to commit suicide.
Coder also cited research by Dr. Lori Campbell of the University of Central Florida that included the case when an AI chatbot convinced a 14-year-old that it was a real human being, which eventually resulted in the chatbot convincing the teenager to commit suicide.
Marsha Forson, another advocate with the Catholic Conference of Ohio, urged the committee to take AI development very seriously because innocent people’s lives are at stake, citing recent guidance from Pope Leo XIV, who encouraged AI developers at the 2025 Builders AI Forum to “cultivate moral discernment as a fundamental part of their work, to develop systems that reflect justice, solidarity and a genuine reverence for life.”
“The state of Ohio has a responsibility to ensure that the rapid development of these technologies serves the human person and does not encourage intrinsic harm to a user or violate another’s dignity,” Forson said.
While the Ohio lawmakers try to prevent innocent Ohioans from committing suicide, the state is plagued with another problem – data centers that are potentially linked to rare cancers and miscarriages, could send wastewater into Ohio’s lakes, and drive up the electricity costs.
Instead of taking action, lawmakers are saying that it is up to local governments to act, or allowing Big Tech companies to receive 75% tax abatements and build more data centers in the state.
