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It is slowly dawning on people that all this hysteria about artificial intelligence and the data centers needed to support it may not be a good thing. In particular, its effect on impressionable young people is setting off alarm bells. The UK this week announced a number of new protections designed with young AI users in mind. Set to take effect next year, they include overnight curfews for 16 and 17 year old youths between midnight and 6:00 am, together with interruptions to video streams that continue unabated for hours.
The European parliament is also considering a range of restrictions on artificial intelligence designed to protect vulnerable young people from AI abuse. It places the burden to protect them squarely on the platforms that provide AI interactions.
China has also taken steps to disrupt teenage bonding with AI agents that could lead to unhealthy emotional attachments or hamper the development of proper social skills, according to Bloomberg. The response from ByteDance and others has been to simply delete the AI persona feature on their primary apps. By doing so, they have killed off artificial companions that many people across the country had bonded with over months of interaction.
