New York’s latest intervention in artificial intelligence began with a broader push to put guardrails around fast-moving technology. In 2025, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a measure requiring larger AI companies to maintain safety protocols, disclose them publicly and report signs of “critical harm” to the state within 72 hours.¹

Now, the state has gone further for minors. Legislation approved earlier this year and signed by Hochul on Oct. 28 bars chatbot operators from giving under-18s responses that present a bot as human, alive or capable of human feelings. It also prohibits flattery and sycophancy, encouragement of suicide or drug use, and prompts that isolate children from adults.¹

The law requires companies to verify users’ ages, with at least one route that does not rely solely on government identification.² It takes effect Jan. 1, 2027, and gives Attorney General Letitia James authority to sue operators, seek financial relief and pursue deletion of unlawfully obtained data.¹

For Hochul, the target is unmistakable: “No longer will minors have access to chatbots that pretend to be their friends and boyfriends and girlfriends.”¹ James said the state would defend residents “with the full force of the law.”¹ Assemblyman Alex Bores cast the measure as proof that the public can still shape AI’s social consequences, while Common Sense Media called it the country’s strongest kids’ AI safety law and urged other states to follow.¹

The opposing view comes from Tech:NYC, whose members include chatbot operators such as Meta. The group said the law’s broad and vague terms could force companies to restrict access to tutoring, homework help, coding assistants and career platforms—“cutting our youngest New Yorkers off” from tools for education and work.¹ As states increasingly test the limits of AI regulation, New York has chosen child safety over the industry’s plea for narrower rules.³