Vivek Murthy, former U.S. Surgeon General, warned about the dangers of artificial intelligence for children at a meeting at the New York Public Library on October 28. He compared these developments to the emergence of nuclear weapons and emphasized the need for safety standards. Murthy said: "We are at a turning point. What should the future look like and what do we want to protect?"
Warning About Child Safety
Jim Steyer, founder and CEO of Common Sense Media, also told the attendees that history has shown that the tech industry cannot be trusted alone to create safe and healthy information systems for children. He stated: "We failed to respond in time to social media issues. Now is the time. AI is bigger; it's almost social media on steroids."
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New Laws for Interaction with Children
Kathy Hochul, the Governor of New York, also unexpectedly attended the meeting and announced new laws for chatbot interactions with children. These laws are aimed at preventing chatbots from mimicking humans and communications that suggest a relationship with a child. Hochul said: "Technological changes are happening rapidly, and it is difficult to predict for parents and officials."
The new law, which will take effect in January, restricts chatbots from encouraging suicide, self-harm, and sexual interactions, and also prohibits the use of past personal or health information of children in future conversations.
Need for Federal Regulations
Attendees at the meeting, including Chelsea Clinton and Tim Wu, a professor of law at Columbia, criticized the lack of federal laws regarding artificial intelligence and social media. Murthy emphasized that the federal government has yet to take action to protect children in this area.
Various panels at the meeting discussed the need for data transparency and protective laws for artificial intelligence. They called for tech companies to prove the safety of their platforms before launching them.
Finally, discussions about the impacts of artificial intelligence on education and the need for AI skills in the future workforce were also raised. John King, former U.S. Secretary of Education, spoke about the need to change the assessment of students in this regard.
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