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Katie Hobbs

medium confidence · updated 2026-09-23

Democratic Governor of Arizona. Vetoed HB 2311, the state's 2026 conversational-AI disclosure bill, on June 19, 2026 on the ground that it limited families' remedies and constrained state enforcement; signed a three-year pause on new data-center sales-tax breaks in the June 2026 budget.

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Katie Hobbs is the Democratic Governor of Arizona (Source: npr.org). In AI policy she is associated with her June 19, 2026 veto of HB 2311, a bill regulating conversational AI services, whose remedies she described as shielding technology companies from liability (HB 2311 Veto Letter — Gov. Katie Hobbs (Arizona, June 19, 2026)), and with a 2026 budget measure pausing new sales-tax incentives for data centers (Source: news.bloombergtax.com).

Chatbot legislation

In a letter of June 19, 2026 to House Speaker Steve Montenegro, Hobbs reported that she had vetoed HB 2311, writing: "I will not protect big technology companies and AI chat bots more than children." She objected that the bill "limits damages to families to what amounts to a drop in the bucket for large corporations, prohibits families from bringing their own lawsuits, and ties the state's hands in bringing actions in an unprecedented manner," and said she looked forward to working with the Legislature and parents "on how to prevent harm to our youth without simultaneously shielding technology companies from meaningful liability" (HB 2311 Veto Letter — Gov. Katie Hobbs (Arizona, June 19, 2026)). The bill would have capped civil penalties at $1,000 per violation and $500,000 per operator, reserved enforcement to the attorney general, barred a private right of action and limited the attorney general's rules, guidance and settlements (Source: azleg.gov).

The same day she vetoed two other bills with "artificial intelligence" in their short titles, HB 2592 ("artificial intelligence; state agencies; rules") and HB 4005 ("artificial intelligence; course; public schools") (Source: azgovernor.gov).

NPR's September 2026 investigation of state chatbot bills cited the HB 2311 veto as an example of "tech-friendly chatbot bills" that did not become law, in a report that also described Google lobbying registrations on chatbot bills in Arizona and other states (Source: npr.org). Hobbs's letter names no company and does not discuss how the bill was drafted.

Deepfake legislation

In May 2024 Hobbs vetoed SB 1336, which would have created felony penalties for non-consensual dissemination of deepfake images depicting a person nude or engaged in sex acts, stating in her veto letter that she planned to sign SB 1078, which establishes similar penalties. She signed SB 1359, requiring the creator of a deepfake of a political candidate to include an AI-generated-content disclosure within 90 days of an election, and HB 2394, which allows the subject of a non-consensual deepfake to sue its creator and exempts internet service providers from liability for hosting third-party deepfakes (Source: courthousenews.com).

Data centers

Hobbs asked the Republican-controlled Legislature to repeal Arizona's data-center sales-tax incentive, a 2013 exemption that costs the state about $38 million a year. The $18 billion budget she agreed with Republican lawmakers in June 2026 instead imposed a three-year moratorium on new data-center sales-tax breaks; on signing it, Hobbs said: "We're stopping the data center tax credit for three years, investing in border security, education and water security, and delivering a $1.4 billion tax cut for middle class Arizonans." Bloomberg Tax reported that Arizona thereby joined Ohio and Illinois in pausing new exemptions while the states study the issue (Source: news.bloombergtax.com). See Data Center Siting / AI Power Politics.

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Categories: People & Organizations | us | governor | policymaker | government | liability | chatbots | energy
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