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Sen. Josh Hawley addresses the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary during a debate over the AI chatbot regulation bill he introduced in October, known as the GUARD Act. April 30, 2026.
Wisdom Howell // Medill News Service.
Senate Committee advances bill banning AI companions for children
May 04, 2026
WASHINGTON—A bipartisan bill that would ban minors from using AI companions, require all chatbots to verify a user’s age, and allow AI companies to be prosecuted for harming children was unanimously advanced to the Senate floor Wednesday by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. introduced “the Guidelines for User Age-verification and Responsible Dialogue Act,” (GUARD Act) in October as the Senate’s response to the rise in cases of children being groomed and driven to commit suicide by chatbots designed to replicate human interactions known as AI companions.
“This has got to stop,” Hawley said after sharing testimonials from victims' families in attendance. “This should not happen in the United States of America. No amount of profit justifies the destruction of our families and our children.”
Since 2023, instances of minors committing suicide at the behest of AI companions and chatbots have increasingly drawn national headlines and lawsuits from victims' families against popular AI companion platforms like Character.AI are beginning to pile up in courts across the country.
The bill, which was passed by a 22-0 vote, differentiated AI companions from chatbots like ChatGPT, which has also been accused of influencing children to harm themselves.
Specifically, the act would institute a blanket ban on minors using any AI companion platform. Full stop. Chatbots would not be fully banned for kids.
The bill also would require AI companies to verify users’ ages and disclose their non-human status to users. The bill would impose criminal and civil penalties on companies that violate its terms.
Sen. Alejandro Padilla, D-Calif., chimed in to support the bill but raised concerns about users’ privacy during the age verification process.
“I just want to register some questions and concerns we have about potential privacy and security risks with the age verification component, and I think that’s one of the areas we can fine-tune,” he said.
Jennifer Huddleston, a senior fellow in technology policy at the Cato Institute, shared those concerns in an interview following the meeting with Medill News Service, but clarified her organization does not support or oppose legislation.
“This would require everyone who is using an AI chatbot to pass some sort of age verification, which typically involves biometrics or government IDs,” she said. “Therefore, age verification becomes a form of identity verification. One can easily imagine how this would have a significant impact on anonymous speech, which can be incredibly important for any number of reasons, whether it is people that are engaged in political discourse or political dissent, or whether it's someone who is perhaps asking about a sensitive medical issue.”
Immediately after voting to advance the GUARD Act, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) called for revisions of the bill’s total ban on child chatbot access.
“I think there are applications where chatbots can be beneficial. In Texas, the Alpha School has produced extraordinary results using AI with kids,” Cruz said.
Cruz’s comments reflected a concern held by some policy analysts that the bill will hinder the next generation from mastering AI tools as AI becomes more ubiquitous in everyday life.
“We want to make sure that kids are okay in the space,” Aden Hizkias, associate policy director at Chamber of Progress, which opposed the GUARD Act, said in an interview. “But if a kid or a group of kids, or a generation, let's say, is unable to access these types of tools now as they progress exponentially, you're essentially cutting off a huge benefit for them and for the U.S. at large because there's an entire generation that's not going to have the skill set.”
Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who co-authored the GUARD Act, warned his fellow committee members to prepare for AI companies to lobby against the bill.
“Warning, we’re not done yet,” Blumenthal told the committee. “Others who have championed this kind of legislation know that (AI companies) will be relentless and tireless. Whatever they say publicly, they will be behind the scenes with armies of lawyers and lobbyists trying to fight us, mislead, and confuse.”
He added that the Tech companies would use core American principles to fight against the bill.
“We’re going to hear a lot about the First Amendment, free enterprise, and ‘trust us,’” he said.
Joel Thayer, a senior fellow for AI and emerging technology policy at the America First Policy Institute, has been researching the First Amendment implications of Congress regulating AI chatbots and said the government has a strong chance of defeating potential lawsuits from AI companies.
“I think that's where it's going to be a tough row to hoe,” he said.
He predicted that AI companies would try to emulate the First Amendment defense that was successful for social media companies. “I don’t think this is analogous at all, especially if you've engaged with the chatbot,” he said, “That’s the crux of it, that they have more of a diluted First Amendment speech interest here.”
The GUARD Act now awaits a debate on the Senate floor. The U.S. House of Representatives introduced a similar bill using the same name on Wednesday, the Guidelines for User Age Verification and Responsible Dialogue (GUARD) Act.
Wisdom Howell is a reporter for Medill News Service.
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Spring signals a time of renewal, at a time when our social and political spheres are divisive, we must tend to this optimism and enact the change we need to grow.
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A Commencement Speech for Anyone Standing at the Edge of Becoming
May 04, 2026
Spring never asks. It shows up pushing green through dirt that barely gives, cracking open what winter froze, murmuring to everything stalled: try again. This is the season of robes and tassels, names called out, and the myth of completion. But commencement is never about being finished. It’s about giving yourself the nod to start over.
This isn't just for the Class of 2026. Not just for the ones gripping diplomas in echoing auditoriums and stadiums. This is for anyone who’s outgrown their old skin, anyone standing at the edge of a life that no longer fits, anyone forced to surrender what was to face what could be. Beginning again is messy. There’s no applause. Only the raw edge of a new beginning.
And what a time for it.
Headlines drag down hope. The economy squeezes households and dreams. Conversations have turned into battlegrounds. Nationalism cosplays as virtue, shrinking our sense of connection. A difference of background, belief, or culture is too often seen as a risk, not an invitation. All that noise, and you’re expected to step forward. It feels absurd. Like someone handing you a seed in the middle of a hurricane. But here’s the thing: storms don’t erase spring. They confirm it.
Truth told, you’re not stepping into certainty. You’re stepping into chaos. This world isn’t fixed. It’s contested—truth is debated, power is a performance, and identity is packaged before it’s understood. However, you’re not powerless. I dare encourage, you’re ready!
Not because you have every answer, but because you’ve learned to ask better questions. Not because you’re finished, but because you know the world you inherit isn’t the world you’re required to accept.
Respectfully, my generation grew up on the fiction that life runs straight. We were coached to simply follow the script, check the boxes, and we would land where we were meant to be. But life paths aren't straight. Often they bend, turn sharply, double back, sometimes flood, or lead to somewhere never expected.
Don’t confuse direction with destination.
You will change. Your ambitions, your priorities, your sense of what matters will shift with new truths, new heartbreaks, new love. That’s not failure. That’s transformation. I'm reminded of this story.
There was a young traveler, armed with a map so precise there was no room for wonder. Every inch mapped, every fork anticipated. One day, the road just ended. Not gently. It just stopped.
Standing there, furious, convinced something had gone wrong, the traveler finally looked up. There was no road, just a wild, living forest. No signs. No guarantees. Only possibility. The traveler put away the map. And stepped off the edge.
Maybe that’s you right now. Map in hand. Road vanished. If you listen, you’ll hear the question: What if this isn’t the end, but the first act of a new chapter? Moreover, stepping into the unknown isn’t just a poetic moment. Also, it’s a political one. How so? This world will name you before you name yourself. It will put you in boxes, flatten you into data, and sell you scripts about who you’re supposed to be. It’ll tell you your worth is your output, your voice is your volume, and your identity is your conformity. And if you’re not careful, you’ll believe it.
Guard your imagination. It’s sacred.
Imagination isn’t about escape. It’s about resistance. Dreaming of justice in a time of injustice isn’t naive—it’s urgent. Believing in community when division sells is not delusional—it’s daring. Insisting on dignity when degradation is easy, on compassion when cruelty is cheap, on truth when distortion is everywhere—this is backbone, not weakness.
It will cost you. Comfort. Approval. Certainty. But know this: avoiding the cost means avoiding meaning. You may wonder: What does starting over or beginning again actually look like? It isn’t always some grand reinvention. Most beginnings are silent. They happen alone, in the dark, as a promise to yourself: I won’t let what happened to me define what happens through me.
You’re not just in the world; you are a co-creator of the world.
Every act of integrity disrupts corruption. Every act of empathy disrupts apathy. Every act of courage disrupts fear. You don’t need permission to do this. You don’t need a title. You don’t have to be flawless. You just need to be authentically YOU! Real talk: change never comes from the crowd. It comes from the few who show up, again and again, living their values while the world spins out.
So celebrate the grind. The late nights, the early mornings, the people who held you up. Celebrate the fact that you made it. Yet, don’t mistake this moment for arrival. This is the threshold. Thresholds are sacred. They’re where we leave something behind and walk into what comes next—without any guarantees. So as you cross respective thresholds, remember to stay curious. Keep listening. Be brave enough to keep becoming.
And when the road ends—and it will—don’t panic. Pause. Look up. Fold the map. Step in. And begin again!
Rev. Dr. F. Willis Johnson is a spiritual entrepreneur, author, scholar-practioner whose leadership and strategies around social and racial justice issues are nationally recognized and applied.
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People voting at a polling station
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Election Officials Have Been Preparing for AI Cyberattacks
May 04, 2026
Since ChatGPT and other generative artificial intelligence systems first became widely available, the Brennan Center and other experts have warned that this technology may lead to more cyberattacks on elections and other critical infrastructure. Reports that Anthropic’s new AI model, Claude Mythos, can pinpoint software vulnerabilities that even the most experienced human experts would miss underline the urgency of those risks. Fortunately, election officials have been preparing for cyberattacks and have made significant progress in securing their systems over the past decade, incorporating improved cybersecurity practices at every step of the election process.
Anthropic claims that its new model can autonomously scan for vulnerabilities in software more effectively than even expert security researchers. If given access to this new model, amateurs would theoretically be capable of identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities in a way that previously only sophisticated actors, such as nation-states, could do. For this reason, Anthropic chose not to release the Mythos model publicly. Instead, under an initiative Anthropic is calling Project Glasswing, it has offered access to Mythos to a number of high-profile tech firms and critical infrastructure operators so that these companies can proactively identify and address vulnerabilities in their own systems. Although Anthropic is currently controlling access to its model to prevent misuse, experts believe it is only a matter of time before tools advertising similar capabilities are broadly available.
This danger will not necessarily be new to election officials. Year after year, elections have been targeted by highly sophisticated cyber interference efforts by foreign adversaries and criminal actors. Election officials have planned for and defused these threats as they arose. While AI-assisted vulnerability scanning may expand the scale of possible attacks, it still represents a difference only in degree — not in kind — from what election officials have prepared to face. Some security experts who have received access to Mythos have publicly agreed with that assessment, noting that even the previously undiscovered vulnerabilities were ones that could have been found by a human researcher; they were not entirely new weaknesses altogether. The layers of protection election officials built to defend against cyberattacks in the pre-AI age will continue to guard against new attacks and offer a launching point for further fortifying election systems.
Since attempts by Russian actors to scan and infiltrate state voter registration databases in the 2016 election, election officials nationwide have adopted security best practices and updated technology, with funding and support from state and federal government. A survey of state election officials shows that most states have adopted recommended voter registration database protections, such as requiring multifactor authentication for all users, using network monitoring systems, conducting system audits, and creating regular backups. Between 2018 and 2024, the federal government provided over $1 billion to update election technology and offered free access to cybersecurity assessments and vulnerability scanning, allowing election officials to better understand system threats and improve prevention protocols. While the federal government has withdrawn much of its support for election security over the past year, on the whole, states have more cybersecurity capacity to defend their systems than they did a decade ago, following a four-year, $1 billion state and local cybersecurity grant program that launched in 2021.
More importantly, election officials do not rely on cybersecurity protections alone to guarantee the accuracy of final vote tallies. They plan for things to go wrong, and they develop backups, redundancies, and recovery plans to ensure that eligible voters can cast ballots and that every vote is counted. Unlike in 2016, when a quarter of all votes were cast on paperless systems, nearly every vote now has a paper record that can be reviewed by hand in the event of concerns about a cyberattack on voting systems. In case technology fails at the polling place, states also require backup plans such as pre-printed ballots and paper pollbooks. And election officials implement a series of checks through the counting process to confirm that every vote is accurately included in the final count.
While Anthropic’s Mythos model represents a wake-up call, it’s not a call to panic. Instead, it’s a moment for election officials and those who support their efforts to redouble the work they are already doing. Above all, federal and state leaders need to provide sufficient and reliable funding for election security on the scale of what was provided in the years immediately following the foreign interference incidents in the 2016 election. The risks of AI-assisted cyberattacks make it clearer than ever that election security is a race without a finish line — the safeguards for election technology must keep pace with evolving threats.
Moving forward, states need to step up and help fill the gap left by the federal government, which has chosen to significantly reduce support for election cybersecurity (and all critical infrastructure security) under the Trump administration. The Brennan Center’s 2026 annual survey of local election officials shows that broad majorities support the government providing services that were previously offered by the federal government, including election security training, best practices on emerging security threats, security scenario-planning exercises, and incident-response support. Yet 75 percent of local election officials say their state or local government has not provided additional resources to make up for federal cuts.
The Election Security Exchange recommends several low-cost steps election officials can take, many of which they are already taking. These include keeping all software up to date and enabling automatic updates, using a dedicated password manager for all accounts, enabling multifactor authentication, and conducting regular phishing training.
Finally, Anthropic, which says it launched Project Glasswing “in an effort to secure the world’s most critical software,” should consider how it can best expand those protections to any software that underpins the election process.
The threat of AI-assisted cyberattacks is one to take seriously, as experts have long warned. But everyone in the election community must be equally vocal in emphasizing that this emerging danger will not force election officials back to square one. The groundwork they have laid over the last 10 years will continue to provide critical protections, helping to ensure every eligible voter can cast a ballot and have their ballot counted. The responses to previous election security threats also show a path toward future improvements.
Now is the time for legislators and other public officials to invest in what works and partner with election officials to guarantee our safeguards remain one step ahead of the threats seeking to undermine them.
Derek Tisler is counsel and manager in the Brennan Center’s Elections and Government Program
Election Officials Have Been Preparing for AI Cyberattacks was first published by the Brennan Center and was republished with permission.
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2026 Brennan Legacy Awards Celebrate Champions of Democracy
May 03, 2026
The founders of our 18th‑century republic were acutely aware of how fragile their experiment in self‑government might prove, and one can easily imagine them welcoming a modern guardian like the Brennan Center for Justice. Within the wide canopy of organizations devoted to defending our democracy, the Center has emerged as a rare and unmistakable jewel.
For over 20 years, the Center has been dedicated to defending our democratic institutions and the rule of law, while protecting our civil liberties in the face of mounting authoritarian winds.
Rather than being founded by a single individual, the Center was launched as an institutional initiative within NYU Law, bringing together legal scholars, public interest advocates, and policymakers. Its founding mission was to advance democracy and justice through research, litigation, and policy reform—particularly in areas like voting rights, campaign finance, and constitutional law. In a large sense, the Center embodies the very words of its namesake:
"For the genius of the Constitution rests not in any static meaning it might have had in a world that is dead and gone, but in the adaptability of its great principles to cope with current problems and current needs.” — Justice William J. Brennan Jr.
The 2026 Brennan Legacy Awards, held on April 27, 2026, brought together legal scholars, policymakers, journalists, and civic leaders committed to its ideals. The annual event serves both as a fundraising gala and a symbolic honoring of individuals who have demonstrated exceptional dedication to the Center’s mission. The 2026 ceremony, hosted at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City, continued this tradition with a program that combined recognition, reflection, and cultural celebration.
At its core, the Brennan Legacy Awards seek to spotlight leaders who have navigated complex political and legal challenges while upholding constitutional principles. One of the central honorees this year was Jamie Raskin, recognized for his leadership and commitment to protecting democratic institutions. As Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, Raskin has been a prominent voice on issues such as election integrity, congressional oversight, and constitutional accountability. He also led the prosecution in the second impeachment effort, and as he remarked, “perhaps not the last” during the presidency of Donald J. Trump. His recognition at the event underscored the Brennan Center’s emphasis on principled leadership during periods of institutional strain. Raskin’s impassioned talk emphasized not only the importance of shielding our republic in the face of the current assault on the rule of law, but also urged the continuation of the progress that has characterized much of our nation’s 250‑year journey.
Another major honoree was Vanita Gupta, celebrated for her role in defending the rule of law amid heightened political polarization. Gupta’s tenure at the Department of Justice and her broader career in civil rights advocacy reflect a consistent effort to balance governmental authority with the protection of individual rights. Her award highlighted the importance of legal professionals who operate within government structures while maintaining independence and ethical integrity.
The event also honored Peter Keisler, whose career spans both public service and private legal practice. His recognition emphasized bipartisan respect for individuals who contribute to the stability of legal institutions regardless of political affiliation. By including honorees from diverse ideological and professional backgrounds, the Brennan Legacy Awards reinforce the idea that safeguarding democracy is a shared responsibility rather than a partisan endeavor.
Beyond the awards themselves, the evening featured prominent speakers and presenters who added intellectual and cultural depth to the program, including a keynote address by President and CEO Michael Waldman, whose leadership has positioned the organization as a central actor in contemporary debates over voting rights, judicial independence, and government accountability.
In addition, Dr. Agenia Walker Clark, President of Fisk University, contributed as a featured speaker, highlighting partnerships that extend the Brennan Center’s influence into educational and community-based initiatives. The Fisk Jubilee Singers, a renowned a cappella group with deep historical roots, delivered a featured performance. Their presence added a symbolic dimension to the event, connecting contemporary struggles for justice with a longer historical narrative of resilience and expression within African American communities.
The structure of the event—beginning with a cocktail reception, followed by dinner and an awards presentation—reflected its dual purpose as both a celebratory and a fundraising occasion. In a broader context, the Brennan Legacy Awards can be seen as part of a larger ecosystem of civic recognition events that seek to reinforce democratic values through public acknowledgment. By honoring individuals who exemplify courage, integrity, and leadership, the event helps shape norms within the legal and political communities. It also provides an opportunity for networking and coalition-building among stakeholders committed to democratic governance.
Overall, the 2026 Brennan Legacy Awards transcended their ceremonial role, serving as a reaffirmation of democratic ideals amid ongoing political and institutional challenges. Through its selection of honorees, integration of legal, political, and cultural voices, and support for the Brennan Center’s mission, the event highlighted the enduring importance of vigilance, collaboration, and principled leadership in sustaining democracy.
Seth David Radwell is the author of “American Schism: How the Two Enlightenments Hold the Secret to Healing our Nation” winner of last year’s International Book Award for Best General Nonfiction. He is a frequent contributor as a political analyst, and speaker within both the business community and on college campuses both in the U.S. and abroad.
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