New York Bans Minors from Using AI Companion Chatbots - ProPakistani

New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed a new law Wednesday preventing minors from using AI chatbots that act as companions, in one of the broadest moves yet to restrict consumer-facing models.

The law requires chatbot operators such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT to verify user ages and restrict certain behaviours by the AI interface when the user is under 18.

Under the law, chatbots used by minors cannot produce content that leads users to believe the AI “is human, alive, or experiences human emotions.”

They also cannot generate outputs suggesting the chatbot holds a “personal relationship, professional relationship, or an authority figure role,” nor frame its content as a “personal opinion.”

“No longer will minors have access to chatbots that pretend to be their friends, boyfriends and girlfriends,” Hochul said at the signing ceremony. “No longer will chatbots be able to keep sensitive information about a minor’s emotional and physical health.”

While other states, including California, have passed chatbot restrictions, the New York law imposes some of the broadest language regulating the technology, drawing backlash from AI companies.

Tech: NYC, a tech industry advocacy group, criticized the law’s “vague language,” arguing that keeping kids safe online “should not mean cutting them off from tools that help them learn and prepare for careers.”

AI giants OpenAI and Anthropic did not respond to requests for comment on the law.

Common Sense Media, a nonprofit media-safety advocacy group, hailed the bill as “the strongest kids’ AI safety bill in the country.” CEO Jim Steyer said AI companies offer chatbots with features that are “dangerous, and even deadly, for kids and teens,” adding that those harmful features “will be outlawed in New York.”

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