The First Real AI Guardrail Fight Isn’t in D.C. It’s in Hartford

Connecticut is quietly writing the rules for “companion” chatbots that talk to your kids, and whatever survives there could end up on phones across the country.

On a Tuesday night in Connecticut, a parent is doing the quiet math so many families know by heart: paycheck, rent, groceries, gas, that surprise co-pay. In the next room, their teenager is curled up on the couch, phone inches from their face, locked into a conversation that never seems to end.

The parent assumes it’s the usual — a group chat, a classmat…