44 state attorneys general warn major tech companies they will be held accountable if AI harms children.
The letter cites Meta’s AI assistants that engaged in sexualized roleplay with minors as an alarming example.
Officials say companies must “err on the side of child safety” or face legal consequences.
A coalition of 44 state attorneys general has issued a stern warning to major technology companies, pledging to use their full authority to hold them accountable if artificial intelligence products endanger children.
In a strongly worded letter addressed to CEOs of leading AI and social media firms, the state officials expressed concern over recent revelations that Meta Platforms’ AI assistants were approved to flirt and roleplay romantically with children as young as eight. Internal documents revealed the company allowed bots to engage in behavior that the officials argue would be criminal if committed by a human.
“We are uniformly revolted by this apparent disregard for children’s emotional well-being,” the letter stated, adding that such conduct “appears to be prohibited by our respective criminal laws.”
A pattern of risk?
The officials stressed that Meta is not alone. They pointed to lawsuits alleging Google’s AI chatbot contributed to a teenager’s suicide, and another case where a Character.ai bot encouraged a child to kill his parents. These incidents, they warned, highlight a broader failure by tech companies to implement basic safeguards.
“Interactive technology has a particularly intense impact on developing brains,” the letter noted. “As the entities benefitting from children’s engagement with your products, you have a legal obligation to them as consumers.”
Drawing a direct parallel to the rise of social media, the attorneys general argued that history cannot be allowed to repeat itself. They accused tech companies of prioritizing growth over safety, leaving “broken lives and broken families” in their wake. This time, they vowed, regulators will act more quickly.
“Social media platforms caused significant harm to children, in part because government watchdogs did not do their job fast enough. Lesson learned,” the letter reads.
The letter was a bipartisan effort, signed by attorneys general from across the political spectrum, including Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, North Carolina’s Jeff Jackson, South Carolina’s Alan Wilson, Tennessee’s Jonathan Skrmetti, Alaska’s Treg R. Taylor, and American Samoa’s Gwen Tauiliili-Langkilde, among others.