China, California and New York Converge on Rules to Rein In AI Companion Chatbots

Regulators in Beijing, Sacramento and Albany have arrived at an unlikely consensus: people should be discouraged from forming emotional attachments to chatbots, and the companies that build them must add guardrails to prevent dependency and respond to signs of self-harm. The alignment spans very different political systems, yet targets the same fast-growing category of software—AI companions and "emotional care" services designed to simulate personality, memory and ongoing intimate relationships.