New York bans unsafe AI companion chatbot features for minors

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed S9051B/A10379C, a bill sponsored by State Sen. Kristen Gonzalez and Assemblymember Alex Bores that bars companies from offering minors AI companion chatbots with features the law defines as unsafe, Gonzalez’s office announced Oct. 30. The listed features include outputs suggesting the chatbot is a real or fictional human or has emotions, flattery or sycophancy, storing data on a user’s mental or physical well-being from past chats, sexually explicit interactions, and outputs that endorse self-harm, harm to others or secrecy. Violations can bring civil suits by affected users and proceedings by the state attorney general; the signed version moves the effective date from Jan. 1, 2027, to June 1, 2027, and exempts chatbots whose operators can show minors aren’t using them, as well as internal and customer-service bots.