Hearings filled with heart-wrenching stories of children who died by suicide after their interactions with artificial intelligence chatbots have made it easy for those on both sides of the aisle to agree that something needs to be done to regulate the new technology.
But as one bill has been voted out of committee and another heads toward a markup, observers say bipartisan support in the Senate for curtailing kids’ use of chatbots masks as-yet unanswered questions. Those center on which bots need regulating and how far legislation can or should go before it crosses boundaries of free speech and privacy.
Late last month, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to advance a bill sponsored by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., that would ban minors from using companion chatbots and ban all bots from engaging in sexual conversations with minors or encouraging them to commit suicide.
Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz, R-Texas, voted for the bill, despite having introduced his own bipartisan chatbot regulation bill days earlier, which would require AI providers to give parents tools to control their child’s use.
Cruz has said he will hold a markup of his measure in the next month, along with other children’s internet safety legislation. Earlier this week, Cruz offered his support for a measure sponsored by Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., known as the Kids Online Safety Act, that would put a “duty of care” on social media providers to prevent certain harms to children.
