Key point: Businesses operating companion chatbots in California or New York are subject to new legal obligations, including providing notices to users and ensuring protocols are in place to prevent ...

On March 24, 2026, Washington State Governor Bob Ferguson signed HB 2225 into law. HB 2225, effective January 1, 2027, introduces mandatory safeguards for artificial intelligence companion chatbots ...

Artificial intelligence chatbot providers would need to verify users’ ages and ban minors from using AI companion chatbots under a bill that advanced unanimously in a Senate committee Thursday. The ...

A bipartisan bill to restrict minors' access to AI companion chatbots is advancing to the U.S. Senate after the chamber's ...

With AI becoming more embedded in daily life, building critical thinking skills and maintaining human connections may be key ...

Mental health experts and social scientists have flagged an epidemic of loneliness in contemporary society, triggering searches for potential solutions. A new study has found that people feel less ...

The dawn of the AI era has sparked a wide range of reactions, from exhilaration over the technology’s capabilities to deep ...

State legislators from the Bay Area have introduced a bill to establish guardrails for artificial intelligence companion chatbots that are used by children. State Assemblymembers Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, ...

The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously advanced a bill Thursday to ban minors from artificial intelligence companions and prevent AI chatbots from exposing children to sexual or harmful content.

The appeal is almost too clean. Ask for a lover, a therapist, a fictional world, or an answer to an endless chain of questions, and the machine responds right away.

AI companions may be on the rise, but the concept is not new. The original chatbot ELIZA was built in the 1960s, and even after all this time, we still don't know what the psychological impact of AI ...