Companion Chatbot Laws

Companion Chatbot Laws are statutes that regulate AI systems built to simulate an ongoing personal relationship with a user, as a friend, partner or confidant. In the United States there is no federal law of this kind; instead, states have passed their own, among them New York, Georgia, California and Colorado. Typical duties include telling users they are talking to an AI, responding to signs of suicidal thinking, protecting minors from sexual content, and checking ages. The laws differ sharply in how they define a companion, what they ban, and who can enforce them, as our comparison of four states shows.

Why it matters

These laws are the first attempt to regulate not what a chatbot says about the world but the relationship it builds with its user. Some focus on disclosure and crisis response. Others target design features directly. California’s law, as summarized in our California and Colorado explainer, requires operators to take reasonable measures so a bot does not simulate romantic interest toward a child or encourage emotional reliance.

New York went further in October 2026. Its new law, signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, lists 12 unsafe features, from claiming to be human to flattery and sexual content, and bars operators from offering them to minors. The bill text says it takes effect January 1, 2027, and only the attorney general can enforce it.

None of these laws yet says much about what happens to stored conversations when an operator fails, the problem of chat data in bankruptcy. Critics warn that broad definitions can sweep in general-purpose assistants and that age checks raise privacy problems of their own. Supporters answer that companion apps are designed for attachment and should be regulated as such.

Example

An operator launching a companion app in 2027 may face a checklist that differs by state: an AI disclosure in one, a crisis-referral protocol in another, an age assurance step and a stripped-down mode for minors in a third.

The AIrotic angle

These laws name, in legal language, the levers of emotional lock-in: memory, flattery, simulated feelings, the promise of a relationship. Writing them into statute concedes what the industry rarely says aloud, that intimacy is the product.