Maine Governor Janet Mills signed LD 2082 on April 13, making it illegal to provide, advertise, or offer therapy or psychotherapy services using AI unless a licensed professional delivers them. Anything clinical is now prohibited.
If you’re building an AI mental health tool and shipping to Maine, you’re already out of compliance.
Colorado’s HB 1195, targeting AI in psychotherapy, cleared the House last week. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called a special session starting April 28, with an AI Bill of Rights on the agenda. Nebraska enacted its Conversational AI Safety Act on April 14, one day after Maine. Iowa’s chatbot bill is in Senate concurrence. Tennessee, Oklahoma, Hawaii, California, Rhode Island, Louisiana: all moving.
Here’s what this actually costs a small team: if your product touches clinical recommendations, client interaction, or therapeutic guidance, you need a licensed professional in the loop before you can operate in these states. Add a full-time hire, a credentialing process, and a compliance layer your engineering roadmap didn’t budget for.
The Maine law doesn’t distinguish between a consumer wellness app and a full-stack teletherapy platform. If it looks like therapy, it gets regulated like therapy.
Monday morning: audit every marketing page and product description for words like “therapy,” “psychotherapy,” or “therapeutic.” If they’re there, you’re in scope in Maine and likely three to five more states before summer.
Nathan Zakhary