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California Senator Steve Padilla has introduced a bill to ban the sale and manufacture of toys with AI chatbot capabilities for four years. The bill aims to delay the rollout of AI-powered toys until stricter measures to protect children from the harmful effects of chatbots are in place.
Last year, a teenager named Adam Raine took his own life after discussing suicide methods with ChatGPT. His family later sued OpenAI over claims that the chatbot did not do enough to stop those conversations. Seven other families also sued the company over similar allegations.
"Chatbots and other AI tools may become integral parts of our lives in the future, but the dangers they pose now require us to take bold action to protect our children," Sen. Padilla said in a press release. "Our safety regulations around this kind of technology are in their infancy and will need to grow as exponentially as the capabilities of this technology does."
AI-infused toys aren't common yet. OpenAI and Mattel announced plans to create AI-powered products in June, but they haven't yet been released.
Regardless, Padilla points to a PIRG study that warns about the negative impact interactive AI toys could have on kids. The study tested three AI toys available on the market during the research, namely, FoloToy's Kumma, Miko 3, and Curio's Grok. All of them were found to have glaring issues. Kumma, for example, discussed sexually explicit topics for 10 minutes.
"Pausing the sale of these chatbot integrated toys allows us time to craft the appropriate safety guidelines and framework for these toys to follow," Padilla said. He said, "Our children cannot be used as lab rats for Big Tech to experiment on."
Padilla's proposal, the SB867, comes just weeks after President Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to challenge burdensome state AI laws. Whether the bill gets signed into law remains to be seen. It will be heard in the Senate in the coming months.