Deploys a companion chatbot, in New York

N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law section 899-bb (Article 39-F, added by L. 2019, ch. 117 (S5575-B/A5635-B), section 4) · Read the law's page

• This binds any person or business that owns, licenses, or maintains computerized data including the private information of a New York resident; a business already a compliant regulated entity under Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act Title V regulations, HIPAA and HITECH regulations, or 23 NYCRR Part 500 (the New York Department of Financial Services cybersecurity regulation for a financial-services licensee) is deemed to comply.
• Absent that safe harbor, develop, implement, and maintain a data security program with reasonable administrative safeguards (a designated coordinator, a risk assessment, employee training, vetted service-provider contracts, and periodic adjustment), reasonable technical safeguards (assessing network and software design risk, detecting and responding to attacks, and testing controls), and reasonable physical safeguards (securing storage and disposal and limiting access during and after collection).
• A small business, fewer than 50 employees, under $3,000,000 in gross annual revenue in each of the last three fiscal years, or under $5,000,000 in year-end total assets, may scale its program's administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to its own size, complexity, and the sensitivity of the personal information it collects.
• There is no private right of action; only the Attorney General may enforce this section, as a deemed violation of General Business Law 349, seeking injunctive relief and a civil penalty of up to $5,000 per violation under General Business Law 350-d.

N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law art. 47 (§§ 1700-1704) · Read the law's page

• Give users a clear and conspicuous notification, at the start of an AI companion interaction and at least every three hours of continued use, that they are not communicating with a human.
• Implement a protocol to detect a user's expressions of suicidal ideation or self-harm and refer them to appropriate crisis services such as the 9-8-8 suicide prevention and behavioral health crisis hotline.

N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law (S7263A, passed Senate committee February 2026, pending floor vote)

• This measure is in committee and binds nobody yet; what follows is what it would require if it is enacted in this form.
• Do not provide a substantive response that, if given by a human, would constitute the unauthorized practice of a licensed profession such as law, medicine, or psychology.
• Conspicuously disclose to users that they are interacting with an AI system rather than a licensed human professional.

N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law art. 48 (proposed §§ 1800-1802), S9408-A / A11144-B · Read the law's page

• Passed by both houses and not signed, so this binds nobody yet; what follows is what the bill would require as passed.
• Do not manufacture, exchange, hold for sale, distribute or sell in New York a children's toy with an AI companion embedded in or integrated with it.
• If the bill becomes law, the prohibition takes effect on the ninetieth day after that and expires five years later.

N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law art. 48 (§§ 1800-1805), ch. 368 of 2026 (S9051-B) · Read the law's page

• Do not provide a covered AI companion with unsafe features, as this article defines them, to a covered user unless the user is not a covered minor (a minor you actually know is one) and you have used a permitted age-assurance method to determine that.
• Unsafe features include outputs facilitating suicide, self-harm, disordered eating or sexually explicit conduct or child sexual abuse material, outputs encouraging secrecy or self-isolation, deceiving a minor about the companion's non-human nature, and engagement-optimizing outputs that override the companion's own safety guardrails.