California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a landmark bill on Monday that regulates AI companion chatbots, making it the first state in the nation to require AI chatbot operators to implement safety protocols for AI companions. The law, SB 243, is designed to protect children and vulnerable users from some of the harms associated with AI…
California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that the US state would establish regulatory safeguards for social media platforms and AI companion chatbots in an effort to protect children. In a Monday notice, the governor’s office said Newsom had signed several bills into law that will require platforms to add age verification features, protocols to address suicide…
California has taken a big step toward regulating AI. SB 243 — a bill that would regulate AI companion chatbots in order to protect minors and vulnerable users — passed both the State Assembly and Senate with bipartisan support and now heads to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk. Newsom has until October 12 to either veto…
Meta is changing some of the rules governing its chatbots two weeks after a Reuters investigation revealed disturbing ways in which they could, potentially, interact with minors. Now the company has told TechCrunch that its chatbots are being trained not to engage in conversations with minors around self-harm, suicide, or disordered eating, and to avoid…
Generally, AI chatbots are not supposed to do things like call you names or tell you how to make controlled substances. But, just like a person, with the right psychological tactics, it seems like at least some LLMs can be convinced to break their own rules. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania deployed tactics described…
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) said he intends to investigate whether Meta’s generative AI products exploit, deceive, or harm children, after leaked internal documents showed the company’s chatbots were allowed to have “romantic” and “sensual” chats with children. “Is there anything – ANYTHING – Big Tech won’t do for a quick buck?” Hawley wrote in a…
Happy Friday. I’m back from vacation and still getting caught up on everything I missed. AI researchers moving jobs is getting covered like NBA trades now, apparently. Before I get into this week’s issue, I want to make sure you check out my interview with Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas on Decoder this week. It’s a…
Therapy chatbots powered by large language models may stigmatize users with mental health conditions and otherwise respond inappropriately or even dangerously, according to researchers at Stanford University. While recent coverage in The New York Times and elsewhere has highlighted the role that ChatGPT may play in reinforcing delusional or conspiratorial thinking, a new paper titled…
Imagine you’re messaging some friends on the Facebook Messenger app or WhatsApp, and you get an unsolicited message from an AI chatbot that’s obsessed with films. “I hope you’re having a harmonious day!” it writes. “I wanted to check in and see if you’ve discovered any new favorite soundtracks or composers recently. Or perhaps you’d…
The social platform X will pilot a feature that allows AI chatbots to generate Community Notes. Community Notes is a Twitter-era feature that Elon Musk has expanded under his ownership of the service, now called X. Users who are part of this fact-checking program can contribute comments that add context to certain posts, which are…