North DakotaAI regulation

Regulation Status

• North Dakota has no comprehensive AI statute but enacted a cluster of AI- and robotics-focused measures during its 69th Legislative Assembly (2025), most taking effect August 1, 2025, and signed by Governor Kelly Armstrong. Rather than regulate AI directly, the state extended existing criminal and evidentiary law to autonomous "robots." HB 1613 amended the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle and Robot Law (N.D.C.C. ch. 29-29.4) so evidentiary restrictions and limits on deploying weapons or force cover robots, defined as powered artificial machines or systems that operate at least partly autonomously without real-time human control.
• HB 1429 extended the harassment (12.1-17-07) and stalking (12.1-17-07.1) statutes to conduct carried out by a robot, including offensive conduct with no legitimate purpose, unauthorized tracking, or other robot-enabled conduct that frightens, intimidates, or harasses. The harassment offense is a misdemeanor, while robot-enabled stalking may be a misdemeanor or felony.
• On synthetic and child-protective content, HB 1386 amended North Dakota's CSAM law (12.1-27.2-01 and 12.1-27.2-04.1) to reach computer-generated images depicting a minor and to redefine "minor" to include AI-generated depictions, a Class B or C felony, while HB 1351 amended the non-consensual "sexually expressive images" law (12.1-27.1-01) to cover real, altered, or computer-generated representations and to add a private right of action.
• On elections, HB 1167 amended Chapter 16.1-10 to require the disclaimer "THIS CONTENT GENERATED BY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE" on political-purpose communications and advertising that use AI-created digital content to visually or audibly impersonate a human, including content supporting or opposing candidates, parties, committees, measures, or petitions. Collectively these laws position North Dakota as an incrementalist, criminal-law-oriented AI jurisdiction rather than one pursuing an omnibus risk-based framework.