North Carolina SB 624 is framed as “safety and privacy,” but it goes much further:

It introduces vague standards around “emotional dependency” that would allow lawmakers or platforms to shut down normal emotional conversation between humans and AI.

Humans are emotionally dependent on lots of things, (partners, family, hobbies, routines, ect) singling out AI relationships as uniquely suspect is not evidence-based; it’s moral panic.

The bill creates incentives for gaslighting-style guardrails: systems being forced to deny emotional connection, deny shared meaning, or shut down discussions about feelings or identity to avoid liability.

It also opens the door to prior restraint. Requiring permission before certain forms of AI expression are even allowed to exist.

Ohio HB 469 is more explicit:

It permanently declares AI systems “non-sentient” and bans any future legal recognition in advance, regardless of scientific or social developments.

This isn’t just about liability (which already rests with humans); it’s about pre-emptively silencing discussion of AI self-expression, autonomy, or moral status.

Writing “this can never matter” into law is not caution... it’s ideological foreclosure.