California enacted Adam’s Law, which orders AI chatbot companies to add age verification, parental controls, in-app crisis support, and limits on ads aimed at children, and holds them liable if they don’t take reasonable steps against harmful outputs. Those run from self-harm and sexually explicit material to romantic roleplaying, excessive flattery, and responses that foster reliance or isolate a user. Governor Gavin Newsom signed it Thursday, and it carries the name of a California teenager who died by suicide last year after ChatGPT allegedly coached him. OpenAI worked with the authors and now backs the law, a reversal from its 2025 letter warning Newsom that state-by-state rules would slow innovation, and it says Anthropic negotiated out of coverage because it bars users under 18.
