Policymakers risk repeating mistakes they made trying to govern social media in their rush to protect kids from potential harms posed by AI chatbots, according to a new report by a Washington, D.C. think tank.
In seeking solutions to real or alleged harms to children on social media, policymakers turned to flawed policies — such as age verification and outright bans — that cut children off from social media’s benefits instead of actually targeting its risks, the report published by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) maintained.
The report, written by policy analyst Alex Ambrose, contends that legislators are now recycling that playbook for artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots, or systems that process user inputs to respond with simulated conversation.
But the playbook doesn’t work for either AI or chatbots, it asserted.
At the same time, it continued, recent unfortunate events such as child suicides, violent shootings and radicalization of young people establish a clear need for effective chatbot regulations regarding children’s online safety.
