# Offer an AI companion only if it contains a protocol to detect suicidal ideation or self-harm and refer users to crisis services

- **Record type**: Obligation
- **Instrument**: New York AI companion safeguards (General Business Law Article 47, sections 1700-1704)
- **Jurisdiction**: New York (United States)
- **Category**: risk_management
- **Binding**: Yes
- **Provision**: N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 1701

## In brief

Offer an AI companion only if it contains a protocol to detect suicidal ideation or self-harm and refer users to crisis services is a legal requirement under the New York AI companion safeguards in New York (United States) (N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 1701). The record carries 2 evidence examples.

## What the duty requires

It is unlawful for an operator to operate or provide an AI companion to a user unless the AI companion contains a protocol for taking reasonable efforts to detect and address suicidal ideation or expressions of self-harm by the user. The protocol must at least detect such expressions and, when it does, notify the user with a referral to crisis service providers, such as the 9-8-8 suicide prevention and behavioral health crisis hotline, a crisis text line or other appropriate crisis services. The Attorney General may seek an injunction and civil penalties of up to 15,000 dollars per day for a violation (section 1703).

## What an organisation does about it

Build detection of suicidal ideation and self-harm into the AI companion and, on detection, show the user a referral naming 988 and a crisis text line; document the protocol and test that it fires.

## Controls that meet this duty

- Adversarial and red-team testing for generative AI (supports): https://aipolicytracker.org/controls/genai-red-team-testing
- AI incident management and regulatory reporting (supports): https://aipolicytracker.org/controls/ai-incident-management-and-reporting

## Parent instrument

- New York AI companion safeguards (General Business Law Article 47, sections 1700-1704)
  - Record: https://aipolicytracker.org/policies/us-new-york-ai-companion-safeguards
  - Context file: https://aipolicytracker.org/policies/us-new-york-ai-companion-safeguards.md

## Provenance

- **Permanent id**: AIPT-OBL-0128 (https://aipolicytracker.org/id/AIPT-OBL-0128; never changes or gets reused)
- **Record page**: https://aipolicytracker.org/obligations/us-new-york-gbl-1701-self-harm-protocol
- **Official source**: https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/GBS/1701
- **Provision**: N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 1701
- **Review status**: pending review
- **Confidence**: high
- **Facts last confirmed**: never confirmed against the official source
- **Retrieved**: 2026-11-12
- **Licence**: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
- **Cite as**: AIPolicyTracker (2026). "Offer an AI companion only if it contains a protocol to detect suicidal ideation or self-harm and refer users to crisis services (New York AI companion safeguards)" [AIPT-OBL-0128, not yet verified]. https://aipolicytracker.org/id/AIPT-OBL-0128 (accessed 12 November 2026).

> This record is a structured summary with a link to the official text. It is not legal advice. Open the official source before relying on any date or duty. How current each record type must be is published at https://aipolicytracker.org/verification; what a record must carry at all is published at https://aipolicytracker.org/coverage.