New Feature: Discover Similar Bills

Introducing an exciting new way to find the bills you want to track!

As the next phase in our AI Assist project, we have now rolled out our 'similar bills' feature. If you look on any bill page for a bill that is or was active during a 2024 session you will now see an additional tab called Similar Bills. When you click on this tab, the AI will generate a list of bills that are similar to the bill you are looking at:

The tab looks similar to a bill sheet, with a standard set of columns. A few things to note:

• The list of bills looks and functions like a bill sheet. You can change the column widths, move them around, sort and filter them, and so on in exactly the same was as you can with a bill sheet.
• The bills will be from different states around the country. To just see bills from a particular state, use the filter on the State column. Here's how to filter a column.
• One of the columns is our new AI Summary, to allow you to quickly and easily check if the bill is relevant for you.
• The final column is called Score. It is an assessment, by the AI, of how similar the suggested bill is to the main bill. A top score of 100 would be a perfect match, though anything above about 75 should be a good fit. The results are sorted by Score in descending order, so the best matches will be at the top.
• There are 250 suggested similar bills. It's unlikely that all 250 will be good matches but we provide them for you to check. By scanning down the list of bills you should be able to see when the bills stop being useful.
• The list of similar bills is re-generated every time the tab on the bill is opened, so it always works from the current bill text and draws from the current list of introduced bills. Refreshing the web page will re-generate the list.
• We won't be generating similar bills (or AI summaries) for older legislation, but we will be doing it for bills going forward. Similarly, there are no similar bill suggestions or summaries for resolutions or memorials.

So how should you use this powerful new feature? Here are some suggestions, though I'm sure you'll think of other ways!

Example 1: Brainstorm Search Terms

Imagine that I want to track legislation related to autonomous vehicles in California but I'm not sure exactly what search terms to use. I can perform a Quick Search (from the main navigation menu on the left) for "autonomous vehicles", to find a good bill, or maybe I already know at least one good bill, such as AB1777. I can click on the bill number and choose the Similar Bills tab. I now have a list of 249 bills to look at, with the most relevant likely to be at the top:

I can then scan the bill text and AI summaries of good matches for other phrases. That way, I'll quickly find other words and phrases that will help improve my query, such as “Autonomous technology”, "driverless vehicle", "self-driving cars" and so on.

Example 2: Find Bills To Add to Your Bill Sheet

Using the same example, I can create a bill sheet for my autonomous vehicles bills; see this video for how to create a new bill sheet. Then look at the similar bills for AB1777.

I can filter for just California bills by clicking on the three lines at the top of the State tab and typing 'CA' into the box:

This leaves me with 24 California bills.

I can now use the AI Summary to decide which bills are relevant, and add them to my Autonomous Vehicles bill sheets by clicking the + to the left of each bill, then click the + next to the bill sheet in the pop up:

Note: while I will have good, current bills on my bill sheet, because there is no query I will miss all future bills that are of interest - my bill sheet will always just have these bills on it. To make sure that doesn't happen, I can use the words and phrases I identified to also create a good query to make sure I catch those future bills.

Example 3: Checking a Bill Sheet Has All Relevant Bills

Imagine I've prepared several bill sheets related to the risks of Artificial Intelligence (AI), covering the whole of the U.S. One of my bill sheets is about deep fakes, and one of the relevant bills is AK HB306:

I can click on the bill number to be taken to the bill page, and then click on Similar Bills to see the (friendly!) AI recommendations:

AK HB306 is a bill that tackles various aspects of AI security, not just deep fakes, so the list of recommended bills covers broader topics such as election interference and protecting consumers. There are plenty of bills with scores above 70, so our helpful AI is confident that they are good matches. The AI summary tells me that AZ SB1515 is a bill that aims to 'regulate the use of deep fakes in politics'. It seems like an important bill, so and I can check to see whether it's on any of my bill sheets by clicking the + on the far left:

There are dates in the Added column for my AI - Deep fake bill sheet (of course, because that's where the bill came from) and also for my more general Artificial Intelligence Legislation sheet. But it isn't on my AI - voting bill sheet, and it really should be.

I can add it simply by clicking the + next to that bill sheet, and today's date will appear in the Added column to show it's been added:

By repeating that process, I can double check that all of the relevant bills are on my bill sheets.

Example 4: Finding Model Bills

It is common for a bill to be drafted in one state, or by a special interest group, and to then be introduced in different states with minor variations. Because these model bills aren't always identical, it can be difficult to make sure you catch them all with a keyword search but the AI is very good at spotting them!

Let's use age verification for pornographic websites as an example. I wrote about the model bill in this blog post, which started in Louisiana in 2022 and has now been introduced across the U.S. If I know that OK SB1959 is a version of this model bill, I can look at the Similar Bills tab and see a number of bills with high scores, showing they are close matches:

While the bill titles may be different, the bill text of all the top 20 or so bills is very similar, showing that they all have their origins in the same model bill. I can now use this in a number of ways:

• I can use the + button next to each bill to add them to a bill sheet. Note: doing this will mean you have a bill sheet with just the current bills which won't be able to identify future bills as they are introduced. You'd need to repeat this process in the future to catch new bills.
• I can sort by the Bill Progress column to identify those bills that have been enacted, or made it out of committee, if I'm only interested in bills with prospects. I can use the Score for each bill to tell me if it's the model bill - above 80 is likely to be the model.
• I can filter the State column to help me identify the bill in a specific state.
• I can click on some of the bills and use the Similar Bills tab on those bills to further help identify good matches.

Let us know what you think!

We're really excited about the new similar bills feature and we'd love to hear from you with any comments, feedback or examples of how you could use it. Do get in touch!