New York State signs new law banning unsafe AI chatbot services for minors

On the 28th local time, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul signed a bill prohibiting the provision of unsafe AI chatbot services to minors, where "unsafe" covers impersonating real people, creating emotional dependence, encouraging self-harm or suicide, encouraging self-isolation, sexually explicit content, or child sexual abuse material. The state-level law requires companies to perform age verification and offer multiple verification methods, and to delete age information after use; in cases of violation, the state attorney general may seek civil penalties of up to $25,000 per violation, as well as remedies such as compensation and the destruction of illegally collected data or AI models trained on it. Data from Common Sense Media shows that at least 72% of teenagers have used AI companions, and 52% are active users who interact multiple times a month.