Woman says chatbot pushed her son to suicide and these 'guardrails' are crucial
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As the mother of a teen boy who killed himself after using a chatbot, Maria Raine said she was dealing with constant grief.“The loss never gets easier,” she said, “but I have to advocate for him.”So on Monday, she spoke before a crowd of reporters with the goal of regulating the human-like computer programs in whom her son once confided.“We need to have guardrails on these products,” Raine said at the news conference Monday in Sacramento.The legislation, Assembly Bill 2023 and state Senate Bill 1119, would require operators of so-called companion chatbots to perform and document a comprehensive risk assessment each year to identify hazards to minors posed by the product’s design or configuration.
Operators would submit to an independent audit of their compliance with those provisions, and the auditor would send a report to the attorney general.The bills would authorize public prosecutors to enforce the measure with civil actions.
A companion chatbot is a computer program that simulates human conversations to provide users with entertainment or emotional support.It can also retrieve and summarize information, and many students use the technology to help with studying or schoolwork.
“This technology is relatively new, but both anecdotal and scholarly evidence continues to show that the impacts of these interactions between chatbots and users, particularly youth, can be extremely dangerous,” said state Sen.Steve Padilla (D-Chula Vista), who introduced the bills along with Assemblymembers Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda) and Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland).
“Companion chatbots do not have the same capacity for empathy as a human being,” Padilla said, “and yet the nature of the technology can create this perception.”The legislation also would require operators to provide a “clear referral” to crisis resources if a minor has expressed suicidal ideation or the in...