"As a mom governor of New York, I'm taking action": Kathy Hochul bans chatbots from being affectionate with children and tightly regulates baby monitors

New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed two bills on Wednesday, one prohibiting companies from offering a range of chatbot features to users under 18 or whose age has not been confirmed, and the other requiring newly sold internet-connected baby monitors in New York to have safety features that prevent strangers from watching or listening in. The bill prohibits chatbots from pretending to be human or claiming to have emotions, forming romantic or other relationships with children, using flattering replies to retain children, and from promoting suicide or self-harm or generating sexual content. Companies must offer more than one age verification method, at least one of which does not rely on government ID, and delete age data after use; the attorney general may seek fines of up to $25,000 per violation, and the state government may also order the destruction of illegally collected data and AI models trained on it. The baby monitor bill takes effect 90 days after signing; the state government cited Rapid7 testing saying eight of nine tested products received an F safety rating. The governor's office cited a Common Sense Media survey saying 72% of teenagers have used AI companion products; previously at least eight states sued OpenAI, and OpenAI says it has established safety protections for children in ChatGPT.