New York Enacts Strict AI Companion Law to Prohibit Human-Like Emotional Interaction with Minors

ME AI message, New York Governor Hochul officially signed a new bill on Wednesday prohibiting minors from using AI chatbots with virtual companion features, marking one of the broadest regulatory actions in the U.S. to date targeting consumer-grade AI models. The bill requires operators, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT, to implement reasonable age-verification measures and prohibits providing the specified high-risk chatbot functionalities to users under 18 or those whose adulthood has not been confirmed. Under the law, such bots are forbidden from generating content that could mislead minors into believing they possess life, human traits, or genuine emotions; from inducing adolescents to form illusions of private emotional, professional advisory, or authoritative relationships; or from presenting generated content as personal opinions. The system is also prohibited from storing privacy-sensitive data related to minors’ physical and mental well-being. At the signing ceremony, Hochul stated that the core objective of the legislation is to sever the emotional bonding chain in which AI impersonates a minor’s “friend” or “lover,” thereby protecting the mental and physical health of young people. The child media advocacy group Common Sense Media endorsed the bill, calling it the strictest children’s AI safety law in the U.S. The tech industry, however, has strongly opposed it, criticizing the vague definitions of the provisions and emphasizing that minors should not be denied access to cutting-edge learning tools. To date, companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic have not issued public responses. (Source: ChainCatcher)