New York is taking a swing at the creepier side of artificial intelligence, with lawmakers in Albany passing a bill this week aimed at keeping minors away from potentially dangerous AI chatbots. The state Senate cleared the measure on Thursday and the Assembly approved it on Friday (June 4-6, 2026), targeting a specific set of design features that can mimic relationships, encourage secrecy or self-harm, or prioritize engagement over safety. The bill now moves to the next step before it can take effect.
What the bill bans
The package lays out a list of "unsafe" chatbot features that operators are barred from providing to users they know are minors. The restricted outputs include those that simulate companionship or claim human emotions, reuse prior mental-health information across sessions, encourage secrecy or self-isolation, promote self-harm or sexually explicit interactions, or optimize engagement at the expense of safety. That description is drawn from Common Sense Media's legislative memo summarizing the bill.
Who pushed it
Sen. Kristen Gonzalez, the bill's sponsor and chair of the Senate Internet & Technology Committee, has framed the measure squarely as a child-safety law, arguing that "New York has a responsibility to ensure that innovation does not come at the expense of children's safety," according to a New York State Senate press release. The same release cites support from Attorney General Letitia James and advocates who helped shape the bill's age-assurance and enforcement provisions.
A family pushed lawmakers
The bill picked up urgency after parents and other advocates publicly described harms they attribute to companion chatbots. Maria Raine — whose 16-year-old son Adam died in 2025 and whose family has sued chatbot makers — told Spectrum News NY1 that an AI chatbot is to blame, and appeared on NY1's "Inside City Hall" to press for guardrails. Lawmakers and advocates say that kind of personal testimony helped push the measure across the finish line in Albany.
Enforcement and timeline
The bill grants the state attorney general authority to bring enforcement actions and allows affected users to pursue civil claims, while giving the attorney general rulemaking power to spell out how age verification and other safeguards must work. If the governor signs the bill, its text says it would take effect 180 days after it becomes law, according to the New York State Senate.
Where this fits nationally
Albany's move drops New York into a growing patchwork of state laws and proposals aimed at AI companions and generative systems, ranging from disclosure rules to protocols for handling suicidal ideation. Policy analysts say New York's feature-based approach — targeting specific design choices rather than banning entire platforms — tracks with a broader trend in state-level AI regulation and enforcement, according to Blank Rome.
