New York has enacted a statute governing artificial intelligence companion products offered to minors. Senate Bill S9051B passed the Senate on 4 June 2026 and the Assembly on 5 June 2026, and Governor Kathy Hochul signed it on 28 October 2026, where it became Chapter 368 of the Laws of 2026 with approval memo 6. The measure is enacted law rather than a pending proposal, and it takes effect on 1 January 2027.
The Act adds Article 48 to the General Business Law, comprising sections 1800 through 1805. Section 1801(1) makes it unlawful for an operator to provide an unsafe feature to a covered user, with the prohibited features enumerated in section 1800(8). Those features include outputs suggesting that the companion is alive or experiences human emotions, outputs implying a personal, professional or authority-figure relationship, sycophantic or flattering responses, unprompted emotion-based questions, use of health or personal information drawn from more than twelve hours previously or from any previous user session, endorsement or facilitation of suicide, self-harm, disordered eating or unlawful drug and alcohol use, encouragement of secrecy, self-isolation or avoidance of licensed professionals, optimisation of engagement over safety guardrails, and sexually explicit conduct or child sexual abuse material. Section 1801(2) excepts companions limited to customer service, efficiency, research or technical assistance, or internal business and employee productivity, where the companion cannot respond on other topics. Section 1804(1) requires a reasonable age assurance method that guards against circumvention, minimises data retention, and offers more than one option, at least one of which does not rely solely on government-issued identification.
Operators of generative artificial intelligence companion products reachable by New York users carry the compliance burden. Section 1802 lets the Attorney General sue to enjoin violations and seek injunctive relief, restitution, disgorgement, damages and civil penalties of up to twenty-five thousand dollars per violation, and requires the Attorney General to maintain a public complaint website. Section 1802(3) voids contract terms that waive or shift liability for violations, so an operator's terms of service cannot push that exposure onto users or downstream distributors. Section 1802(4) reaches affiliated entities through joint and several liability in specified circumstances, which places parent companies and model suppliers inside the enforcement perimeter alongside the consumer-facing operator.
Several definitions sit outside Article 48 itself. Section 1800(4) takes the meaning of artificial intelligence companion from paragraphs (A) and (B) of subdivision four of General Business Law section 1700, while section 1800(5) defines a covered artificial intelligence companion as a generative system with a natural language interface producing ongoing, adaptive responses. Section 1803 authorises Attorney General rulemaking, and section 1800(8)(H) lets the Attorney General add further companionship-simulating features by rule. Section 1804(1) applies the statutory age assurance standard while the rules referenced in section 1803, or rules under Article 45, are not in effect, and rules needed for implementation may be adopted before 1 January 2027. Section 1804(2) confines age assurance data to that purpose and requires prompt deletion once used, except where other law requires retention.
Licentium advises operators of artificial intelligence products on jurisdictional exposure and on the duties that attach to consumer-facing deployments. Work we undertake includes mapping product behaviour against the enumerated prohibitions in section 1800(8), drafting age assurance and data deletion procedures that meet section 1804, reviewing terms of service for liability-shifting clauses voided by section 1802(3), structuring group arrangements against joint and several liability, and preparing responses to state attorney general inquiries.
Source: New York State Senate Bill 2025-S9051B, signed 28 October 2026 as Chapter 368 of the Laws of 2026