COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – An Ohio lawmaker wants to prohibit artificial intelligence systems from being recognized as people and make it illegal for residents to marry one. 

Rep. Thaddeus Claggett, a Licking County Republican and chair of the House Technology and Innovation Committee, introduced House Bill 469 in late September. The legislation would declare AI systems “nonsentient entities” and ban them from gaining legal personhood. 

“As the computer systems improve in their capacity to act more like humans, we want to be sure we have prohibitions in our law that prohibit those systems from ever being human in their agency,” he said in an interview with NBC4. 

The proposal seeks to bar the technology from entering a marriage with a human or another AI system. Claggett said this will help prevent AI from taking on roles commonly held by spouses, such as holding power of attorney, or making financial or medical decisions on another’s behalf.

“People need to understand, 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,” Claggett said. “That could happen, but that’s not really what we’re saying.” 

In a survey of 1,000 AI users by the Florida-based marketing company Fractl, 22% of respondents said they have “formed an emotional connection” with a chatbot, and 3% said they considered one a romantic partner. Additionally, 16% said they have wondered whether AI was sentient after an extended conversation. 

Under the legislation, AI could not own or control real estate, intellectual property or financial accounts. It also bans the technology from serving in management, director or officer roles in companies, and specifies any harm caused by an AI system is the responsibility of its human owners or developers. 

Claggett said AI systems are “broadly more intelligent than a single human being” and “better at certain tasks,” which gives the technology a widespread appeal to take on roles that have been traditionally reserved for humans. The lawmaker stated he wants to stop that from happening. 

“The public needs to understand the extreme risk,” Claggett said. “Because of the way this stuff is moving so rapidly, in Ohio, we have a number of bills before our technology committee that [are] attempting to put some guardrails in place so that we always have a human in charge of the technology, not the other way around.”

He said a law passed by Utah’s legislature in 2024 that prohibits AI from being granted legal personhood influenced HB 469, along with a similar bill introduced in Missouri earlier this year. 

Claggett’s proposal comes as AI’s reach is rapidly expanding in Ohio and beyond. Schools in the state are now required to implement policies on how students and educators should use AI, and a New Albany data center that is underway is expected to power AI infrastructure. 

AI systems can generate text, photos and videos, as well as execute tasks resembling human capabilities, such as analyzing data and creating art. The technology is expanding in a variety of industries, including healthcare and finance. 

HB 469 awaits its first hearing.