The maker of Barbie, American Girl, Hot Wheels, and Fisher-Price playsets is gearing up to infuse its toys with AI-driven interactive features.

This week: Vermont’s new ‘Kids Code’ got signed into law, Florida enacted a deepfake law, the New York State Senate approved the RAISE Act, and AI bills kept moving in Sacramento.

Vermont Gov. Phil Scott today signed a statewide Kids Code bill into law. The new law requires a duty of care from companies that develop and provide online services or products, ensuring their products will not inflict emotional distress or result in online addiction.

A coalition of civil society groups has filed a complaint asserting that therapy chatbots produced by Character.AI and Meta AI Studio are practicing medicine without a license. They are asking state attorneys general and the FTC to investigate.

An insightful conversation about artificial intelligence, human desires, the attention economy, and how to incentivize more humane AI development: “We want technology that helps us problem-solve, but that also lets us live our lives with dignity and joy.”

Florida became the latest state to protect kids and adults from the harms of AI-generated deepfake images, as Gov. Ron DeSantis signed ‘Brooke’s Law’ into the state’s legal code. The new law requires online platforms to create a process to take down harmful explicit AI deepfake images.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) unveiled a proposal to tie federal broadband funding to a 10-year moratorium on state AI laws.

This week: California’s AI bills survive the deadline for chamber-of-origin approval, Connecticut’s AI bill loses to the clock, and New York’s AI measures continue to simmer in Albany.

The big budget bill currently moving on Capitol Hill contains a clause that would nullify all state laws around artificial intelligence for the next ten years.

In an open letter released this morning, 260 state legislators say the 10-year ban on state AI laws, hidden in the big budget bill, would silence critically needed discussions around AI policy.

A new poll finds that Americans in both parties are strongly in favor of AI regulations, and oppose the decade-long ban on AI safety laws currently being considered in the Congressional budget bill.

This week: Texas lawmakers passed the TRAIGA bill in the Senate. Three California bills that would regulate AI platforms have moved to third reading in the state Senate. Two bills that would regulate transparency in AI and AI-driven chatbots are progressing in New York. Nebraska passed a third bill aimed at protecting kids in the digital realm, and Vermont approved its version of a Kids Code bill.

Working over the long Memorial Day weekend, Texas legislators gave final approval to TRAIGA, the Texas Responsible AI Act.

The California legislature’s “suspense day” on May 23 saw two AI-related bills die and three move on to further consideration. Nebraska adopted a second bill on kids and social media, and Texas’s TRAIGA bill moved ahead in the Senate.

U.S. District Court Judge Anne C. Conway allowed most of the plaintiff’s claims against the Character.AI to proceed. Significantly, Judge Conway ruled that Character.AI is a product for the purposes of product liability claims, and not a service.

Joining the Transparency Coalition Board of Directors are, from left, Christy Johnson, Leigh McMillan, and Yoko Miyashita. Casey Mock, far right, is joining the Transparency Coalition Action Fund Board of Directors.

Two bills focused on protecting kids from the harms of social media and digital apps have been approved by Nebraska lawmakers. One more ‘digital kids’ bill remains in play with the legislature scheduled to adjourn on June 9.

The paper’s recommended books included many titles that don’t exist. Editors say they’re ‘looking into’ how it happened, but many suspect an AI chatbot hallucinated the fake books.

This week: Congress considers a 10-year moratorium on all state-level AI laws, while the California Assembly moves the AI Copyright Transparency Act on to the Senate and Nebraska approves a kids-and-social-media bill.

Pope Leo XIV, the first American Pope, has pledged to engage with the contemporary world in all its facets—including the challenge of artificial intelligence.