‘As New York’s mom Governor, I’m taking action’: Kathy Hochul bans bots from cozying up to kids, cracks down on baby monitors

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed two bills Tuesday aimed at the tech already in kids’ bedrooms and on their phones: AI chatbots and internet-connected baby monitors.

The first law bars companies from offering a list of chatbot features to anyone under 18, or to any user whose age the company hasn’t confirmed. Chatbots can no longer pretend to be a real person, claim to be alive or say they have human emotions. They can’t claim a romantic, personal, professional or authority-figure relationship with a child. They can’t use flattery or “people-pleasing” replies built to keep kids engaged, ask unprompted emotional questions or pull up a child’s private health or personal details from past chats.

The law also bans chatbots from promoting suicide, self-harm, eating disorders or drug and alcohol use, from urging kids to keep secrets or avoid parents and other trusted adults, and from producing sexually explicit content.

“As artificial intelligence advances at a rapid pace, there’ve been too many tragic incidents that should have been stopped........

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