By Kate Wolffe, The Sacramento Bee

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the state’s first law regulating AI companion chatbots on Monday, but it wasn’t the one some online safety advocates and parents had urged him to approve.

For weeks, parents and safety advocates have been calling on Newsom to back Assembly Bill 1064, which would prohibit the rollout of any AI companion chatbot that could possibly harm a child, including by engaging in sexually explicit conversations or encouraging self-harm, suicide or violence.

Among the advocates were the parents of Adam Raine, a 16 year-old Rancho Santa Margarita teen who killed himself in April after discussing his suicidal thoughts with the general purpose chatbot ChatGPT.

With only hours left to sign legislation, Newsom did not comme

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