OpenAI backs California's teen AI safety bill

California’s Legislature passed SB 1119, also known as Adam’s Law, on the night of August 31, sending it to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk. OpenAI publicly endorsed the bill the same day, with CEO Sam Altman reportedly reaching out directly to Newsom to ask him to sign it. Authored by state Sen. Steve Padilla with Assemblymembers Rebecca Bauer-Kahan and Buffy Wicks as principal coauthors, the bill would require companion-chatbot operators to run age assurance to tell child users from adults, block features that create emotional dependency or simulate a romantic relationship with a user the system knows is a minor, and stop products from letting a child user believe they’re talking to a human.

On the enforcement side, SB 1119 requires an annual, documented risk assessment of the child-safety risks a chatbot’s design and operation could pose, an independent audit of an operator’s compliance, and a report from that auditor to the California attorney general within 90 days. If Newsom signs it, the requirements take effect July 1, 2027.

OpenAI’s public support follows a year of wrongful-death and negligence suits against chatbot makers over interactions with minors, and comes after OpenAI already rolled out its own teen safety controls and a dedicated ChatGPT for teens product. Backing SB 1119 puts the company on record supporting state-level rules ahead of any federal youth-safety standard, rather than waiting to be forced into them. The roughly ten-month runway to compliance is the number worth planning around for any team building a chat product minors can reach, in California or anywhere else state legislators are watching this bill as a template.