Senator Warner Circulates Draft Bill on AI Agents

Senator Mark Warner released a discussion draft of the AI AGENT Act that would require large online platforms to allow consumers to authorize AI agents to act on their behalf.

The draft bill would establish requirements for both (i) the AI agents, referred to as "custodial user agents" or CUAs, and (ii) "large online platforms," defined as services with more than 50 million U.S. users in a month. The draft bill would apply to large online platforms providing social media, e-commerce, personal finance, or AI services.

The draft bill would establish the following duties for a large online platform:

• It must maintain transparent, third-party interfaces so users can delegate CUAs to manage accounts and transactions.
• It must grant access on fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory terms, with fees tied to cost, complexity, and risk.
• If a platform offers its own AI agent, it must give competing CUAs an equivalent interface.
• A platform may block a CUA only if the agent is unregistered, repeatedly enables malicious activity, or the user revokes consent.

The draft bill would establish the following duties for a CUA provider:

• It must register with the FTC.
• It is subject to fiduciary-like duties that a contract cannot waive.
• It may not self-deal against a user's financial accounts.
• It may not use user data for ads, profiling, or sale.
• It must act as a prudent person.
• It may not hand authority to other agents without specific user consent.
• It must keep real-time records the user can review.

The draft bill would have the FTC convene a working group with the SEC, CFPB, FDIC, OCC, and Treasury on CUA-related fraud and misuse.

Violations would be treated as unfair or deceptive acts under the FTC Act, and injury to each affected user would be treated as a separate violation.

The draft bill would preempt state law only where directly inconsistent.