New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a law Tuesday that bars companies from offering certain AI chatbot features to anyone under 18 or to anyone whose age has not been confirmed, Fortune reported. The law forces any business running a public-facing chatbot in the state to verify ages, and it gives regulators a rare remedy: ordering destruction of AI models built on unlawfully collected data.
What Happened
According to Fortune, the measure, sponsored by state Sen. Kristen Gonzalez and Assembly Member Alex Bores, cleared the Senate in June and passed the Assembly unanimously.
Under the law, chatbots may not pose as real people, claim to be alive or to have emotions, or claim a romantic, personal, professional or authority-figure relationship with a child. They may not use flattery or unprompted emotional questions to keep children engaged, or draw on a child's private health or personal details from earlier conversations. They may not promote suicide, self-harm, eating disorders or drug and alcohol use, encourage children to keep secrets from parents or other trusted adults, or produce sexually explicit content.
Companies must verify ages using more than one method, at least one of which cannot rely solely on a government ID, and must delete age data after use. The state attorney general can seek civil penalties of up to $25,000 per violation, plus damages and restitution. Fortune's report did not give an effective date for the chatbot rules.
Hochul also signed a second law requiring new internet-connected baby monitors sold in New York to include security features that keep strangers from watching or listening, along with a clear connectivity warning. It takes effect 90 days after signing. The state cited testing by security firm Rapid7 in which eight of nine monitors earned an F and the ninth a D, Fortune reported.
Why It Matters
The age-verification duty covers every user, not only children, so a general-purpose assistant offered to the public in New York faces the same gate as a companion app. The model-destruction remedy could cost a company far more than a fine if it trained models on data collected in violation of the law. Executives should map where chatbot conversations feed training pipelines and how age data is stored and deleted.
"No company should be peddling chatbots to kids encouraging self-harm or pretending to be their friend or more," Hochul said, according to Fortune.
Context
States are pressing chatbot makers on several fronts. The Primary Wire reported this month, citing Reuters, that attorneys general in eight states sued OpenAI, mostly over alleged harm to children. OpenAI has said it built child-safety protections into ChatGPT and will keep improving them, Fortune noted. New York's earlier laws include the RAISE Act, which sets safety and transparency rules for developers of the most advanced AI models.
What to Watch
Watch for the chatbot provisions' effective date, guidance from the attorney general on acceptable age-verification methods, and whether technology companies or trade groups challenge the law in court.
