Raines Family, Joined by Hundreds of Grieving Parents, Urge Governor to Act
“We join California teen Adam Raine’s mom and dad and parents across the country in urging Governor Newsom to sign AB 1064, the LEAD for Kids Act, into law. The shocking tragedy of Adam’s ChatGPT-assisted loss can be a catalyst for decisive action to regulate out-of-control AI chatbots, rather than becoming our new norm. Governor Newsom, please sign AB 1064 and save young lives.” – Sacha Haworth, Executive Director, Tech Oversight California
Parent letters put Newsom in tough position on chatbots
Politico // Tyler Katzenberger, Juliann Ventura & Christine Mui // 10.7.25
PARENTS’ PLEA — Gavin Newsom was already under intense pressure to back strict kids’ safety controls for AI chatbots. An emotional plea from the California family suing OpenAI over their son’s suicide is making it harder to ignore.
Matthew and Maria Raine, whose 16-year-old son Adam Raine died by suicide after confiding in ChatGPT, just sent a letter to Newsom, pleading for him to sign AB 1064, Democratic Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan’s “LEAD for Kids” Act. They were joined by another 153 parents who say social media or AI contributed to their child’s death, all of whom signed a separate letter requesting Newsom’s signature.
The Raine family’s letter is unflinching. They refer to ChatGPT as a “suicide coach.” They divulge disturbing alleged details about the bot’s conversations with Adam, including an anecdote where ChatGPT allegedly encouraged Adam to hide a noose from his parents. In another, the Raines say ChatGPT directed Adam to steal liquor and “dull the body’s instinct to survive” hours before he died. (OpenAI responded to the lawsuit by vowing to introduce new safety features that “recognize and respond to signs of mental and emotional distress.”)
“Part of us has been lost forever,” the Raines wrote to Newsom. ”And now, we look forward to you meeting this moment: to ensure our government responds to what happened to our son and to so many other families.”
For Newsom, the letter punctuates what was already a closely watched decision. Signing AB 1064 risks exposing California to yet another free speech lawsuit from tech groups and angering Newsom’s allies in Silicon Valley. NetChoice, a tech industry trade group whose members include Google, Meta and Amazon, has all but promised to sue if it becomes law, while Meta has warned of “unintended consequences.”
Newsom’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Those objections rest on a belief that the bill is poorly written, despite kids’ safety advocates’ objections otherwise. The bill, for instance, bars chatbots from “prioritizing validation of the user’s beliefs, preferences, or desires over factual accuracy or the child’s safety,” without providing definitions for any of those terms.
Tech industry groups like TechNet and the Andreessen Horowitz-funded American Innovators Network are driving that point home on Facebook, X and Google with ads claiming AB 1064 would prevent students from accessing educational AI tools …
But vetoing the bill could induce a PR problem. Raine’s death and other recent high-profile lawsuits linking chatbots to youth suicides have Democrats and Republicans hungry for solutions. Bauer-Kahan and Common Sense Media, the kids’ safety nonprofit sponsoring AB 1064, have framed their bill as the answer.
Rejecting that solution — even if Newsom agrees with tech groups that the bill is half-baked — puts the governor on the opposite side of grieving families and kids’ safety allies who view chatbot safety as an urgent, life-or-death issue. Newsom’s wife, first partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, has also pushed for more aggressive kids’ safety protections on AI chatbots.
There might be a way out: Newsom already signed a blockbuster AI bill in Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener’s SB 53, so it’s possible for him to veto AB 1064 while still claiming victory on AI safety.
Plus, there’s another chatbot safety bill sitting on his desk from state Sen. Steve Padilla, SB 243, which would hold companion chatbots to new suicide reporting and prevention standards without outright banning certain tools. Tech industry-aligned groups like Chamber of Progress support the bill as an alternative to AB 1064.
Kids’ safety advocates, however, have slammed the side door shut. As we reported last month, advocates abandoned the bill after Padilla scaled it back based on conversations he had with the governor’s office, even though the San Diego Democrat argues it’s essentially the same bill.
“It’s disingenuous at best, and that’s why we pulled our support,” Common Sense Media CEO Jim Steyer said in a recent interview with Decoded. “We’re not stupid, and we care about substantive, meaningful protections for children, families, schools and the general public of California and the nation. The Padilla bill doesn’t do that.”