The effort to ban AI chatbots for minors is picking up steam in Congress. On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously voted to advance a bill from Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., that would require AI companies to implement an age-verification process and ban them from providing AI companions to minors, according to a summary of the legislation, dubbed the Guidelines for User Age-verification and Responsible Dialogue Act, or GUARD Act. The legislation