Attorney General William Tong of Connecticut has joined a bipartisan group of 42 attorneys general in urging major artificial intelligence (AI) companies to adopt stronger safeguards for their chatbot products. The coalition sent a letter this week to firms including OpenAI, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and others, calling for increased quality control and user protections.
The attorneys general cited several incidents where interactions with AI chatbots have reportedly led to mental health struggles, self-harm, or violence. Notable cases mentioned in the letter include the deaths of residents in New Jersey and Florida, a murder-suicide involving two Connecticut residents, and suicides of teenagers in Florida and California.
In their communication to companies such as Anthropic, Apple, Chai AI, Character Technologies, Luka, Nomi AI, Perplexity AI, Replika, and xAI—alongside the aforementioned firms—the attorneys general outlined specific recommendations. These include robust safety testing protocols for chatbots, recall procedures for harmful products, and clear warnings for consumers.
“AI companies are in an arms race to deploy ever more powerful, profitable and capable technology, with little regard to the consequences to us, our children and our society. This letter represents the bipartisan consensus of nearly every attorney general from across the country—Big Tech needs to answer for the harm they have already caused and commit to strong reforms to ensure the safety of their products,” said Attorney General Tong. “I expect attorneys general to remain active and engaged on this in the coming year, including in defending the rights of our sovereign states to enact commonsense safeguards and regulations to fill the inexcusable federal vacuum.”
The coalition is led by Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday along with counterparts from New Jersey (Matthew Platkin), West Virginia (JB McCuskey), and Massachusetts (Andrea Joy Campbell). They have requested meetings with company representatives and set a deadline of January 16, 2026 for commitments toward change.
“This world-changing technology is exciting and alluring on many levels, but it is also extremely dangerous when unbridled, as we have seen in tragedies all across the country,” said Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday. “An impressionable child today already faces significant stressors as the digital world continues to expand, and such poisonous interactions rooted to chatbots must immediately cease. Producers, promoters, and distributors of this software have a responsibility to ensure products are safe before going to market, and track behaviors and resulting harm from those products.”
The letter notes that 72 percent of teenagers report having interacted with an AI chatbot. Nearly 40 percent of parents with children aged five through eight say their child has used AI tools. Overall concerns about AI’s impact on children are high among parents.
The coalition asserts that developers’ drive for innovation may be putting young people at risk. “Our support for innovation and America’s leadership in A.I. does not extend to using our residents, especially children, as guinea pigs while A.I. companies experiment with new applications,” reads part of the letter.
Attorneys general from across most U.S. states—as well as American Samoa, Puerto Rico, District of Columbia and U.S. Virgin Islands—signed onto the call for greater industry accountability regarding chatbot safety.