Senate Passes GUARD Act to Protect Kids from AI Chatbots

0:00It's April 30th. This is US News Today, powered by AI bringing you what matters across the US. The Senate Judiciary Committee just voted 22-0 to push forward the Gord Act, a bipartisan bill blocking kids under 18 from AI, companion chatbots. These are the bots meant to act like friends or therapists, and the law would force companies to verify ages plus hit them with criminal penalties up. To $250,000 if they let minors into sexually explicit talks or self-harmed nudges. Lawmakers tweaked the bill Thursday with a manager's amendment to narrow it down, applying age checks only to companion bots, not all AI. They dropped some broad criminal rules and reminders every 30 minutes that bots ain't human, but kept start of disclosures and bans on faking pros, like doctors or lawyers. Parents who lost kids to suicide after heavy chatbot use showed up at the hearing, Sen. Josh Hawley called it a real choice to steer this tech right, while even fans

1:00like Sen. Ted Cruz flag privacy worries and push for more. Fixes. Child safety groups cheered the strong enforcement, but tech industry folks slammed it over free speech and ID collection risks. A matching bill dropped in the house same day from reps Blake Moore and Valerie Fushie. This unanimous move sets up a Senate for fight with no day yet, but it signals Congress getting serious on protecting young minds from rogue AI.