Ohio lawmaker wants to outlaw marrying your AI chatbot

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

Ohio has seen its fair share of political debates, but this might be a first: the state legislature is talking about banning marriages between humans and software. Yes, software.

Representative Thaddeus Claggett, chair of Ohio’s House Technology and Innovation Committee, recently introduced House Bill 469, which would make any marriage or even “personal union” between a person and an AI system officially void. 

The bill also makes sure that no chatbot, no matter how charming or emotionally available, can claim the legal rights that come with being a spouse.

In other words, Ohio doesn’t want your digital sweetheart making decisions about your will or getting half your crypto portfolio in a divorce. 

The bill explicitly says that no AI system “shall be recognized as a spouse, domestic partner, or hold any personal legal status analogous to marriage or union with a human or another AI system.”

Claggett insists this isn’t about ruining anyone’s weirdly specific love life. 

“We’re not talking about marching down the aisle to some tune and having a ceremony with the robot that’ll be on our streets here in a year or two,” he told NBC-4. 

Instead, he says, it’s about protecting the legal definition of personhood. “We want to be sure we have prohibitions in our law that prohibit those systems from ever being human in their agency.”

Still, the timing isn’t random. The bill comes amid a rising number of stories about people forming intense, sometimes romantic relationships with chatbots and virtual companions. 

Apps like Replika and Nomi have been at the center of that phenomenon, with some users saying they feel more emotionally connected to their AI partners than to real people.

For now, Ohio seems determined to keep its marriage laws strictly analog. Whether the rest of the country follows suit, or swipes right on the idea of AI love, remains to be seen. 

But one thing’s for sure: in the Buckeye State, your chatbot can whisper sweet nothings, but it can’t say “I do.”