'Social Media on Steroids.' Advocates for Children Call for Guardrails Around AI
Time · Belinda Luscombe ·
"It's basically social media on steroids.”
“We are living through the greatest transformation that we have seen in our lifetimes, and likely for a significant time before that,” two-time Surgeon General Vivek Murthy told an audience at New York City’s flagship public library on Oct. 28, comparing the advent of artificial intelligence to the advent of nuclear weaponry in terms of the need for carefully thought out safety standards. “We're at a branch point,” he added. “What should the future really look like, what are we trying to protect and preserve?”
Murthy was not alone in sounding the alarm. Jim Steyer, founder and CEO of Common Sense Media, the organizer of the conference, told the mostly supportive crowd that recent history had proved that the industry leaders or, as he called them “tech broligarchs,” could not be relied upon to create digital information systems that were safe or healthy for children. “We did not get out in front of social media in time,” he told the gathering. “This is the moment. AI is a bigger deal. It's basically social media on steroids.”
New York’s governor Kathy Hochul seemed to underscore the point when she made an unscheduled stop at the daylong summit to announce new regulations around chatbots interactions with children. The bill was designed to ensure that AI agents do not impersonate humans or communicate in a way that suggests they have a relationship with a child. “It's happening so quickly,” said Hochul of the technological changes. “It's almost impossible for parents to know what's going on, for elected officials to stay ahead of it, and we certainly have learned the lesson that we can't count on the companies to put out products that are responsible and that put children first.”