EdLaw
New York General Business Law Article 47 — Artificial Intelligence Companion Models
New York's AI companion statute, binding any operator that "operates for or provides an AI companion to a user" in the state. Article 47 (§§1700–1704) was added by Part U of the 2025–26 budget bill, S.3008-C/A.3008-C, signed as Laws of 2025, chapter 58 on 9 May 2025; Part U's effective clause reads "This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after it shall have become a law", which is 5 November 2025. It requires a protocol for detecting and addressing suicidal ideation and self-harm, with referral to crisis services, and a notification that the user is not communicating with a human, enforced by the Attorney General.
Applicability to EdTech
Coverage depends on the AI companion definition, which has three limbs joined by "and": a system "designed to simulate a sustained human or human-like relationship with a user by" retaining information on prior interactions or sessions to personalise the interaction, "asking unprompted or unsolicited emotion-based questions that go beyond a direct response to a user prompt", and "sustaining an ongoing dialogue concerning matters personal to the user" (§1700(4)(a), (i)–(iii)). The exclusions include "any system that is primarily designed and marketed for providing efficiency improvements or, research or technical assistance" (§1700(4)(c)(ii)). There is no educational exclusion, but an EdTech tutor that keeps no memory between sessions and does not ask unprompted emotion-based questions does not meet the conjunctive test as written.
A "User" is a person who uses an AI companion "for personal use within the state" (§1700(8)).
The proposed S.9051-B would build on this definition and add a much wider "covered AI companion" category for minors.
Key obligations at a glance
- Crisis protocol — no AI companion may be operated or provided without "a protocol to take reasonable efforts for detecting and addressing suicidal ideation or expressions of self-harm", including referral to crisis services such as 9-8-8 — §1701.
- Not-a-human notification at the start of an interaction (need not exceed once a day) and at least every three hours during continuing interactions — §1702.
Enforcement
The Attorney General may sue to enjoin and seek civil penalties of up to $15,000 per day for a violation of §1701 or §1702; penalties go to the suicide prevention fund — §1703, (2). No private right of action is provided.
Contents
| Document | Covers |
|---|---|
| GBL-ART-47.md | §§1700–1704 in full: definitions, prohibitions and requirements, notifications, enforcement, severability |
Licence
The fact document reproduces N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law §§1700–1704, enacted by the New York Legislature and served by the Senate's Open Legislation service. No copyright subsists in this text. In Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, Inc., 590 U.S. 255 (2020), the Supreme Court held: "Under what has been dubbed the government edicts doctrine, officials empowered to speak with the force of law cannot be the authors of—and therefore cannot copyright—the works they create in the course of their official duties." (slip opinion, read 2026-10-01.) The nysenate.gov terms were not read, because the site refuses this network; they cannot change the position for statute text.
Conditions: none attach. The corpus names the official source in Sources and in each section's {.meta} provenance line, and Meta describes what it changed (anchors added, nothing reworded).
Related
- NY S.9051-B — proposed Article 48 on unsafe AI companion features for minors, defined by reference to §1700(4)
- California companion chatbot law (SB 243) — California's counterpart, in force since 2026-01-01
- N.Y. Educ. Law §2-d — New York's student data-privacy statute
Sources
- NY Senate — General Business Law §1700
- New York State Assembly — S.3008-C/A.3008-C of 2025, text and actions — Part U § 1 adds Article 47 and § 3 reads "This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after it shall have become a law"; actions: "05/09/2025 SIGNED CHAP.58"