By Empowering Parents and Narrowly Defining the Tools Covered
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today’s introduction of the CHATBOT Act by Senators Cruz, Schatz, Curtis, and Schiff represents a good faith effort to keep our kids safe when interacting with open-ended chatbots or AI companions.
“The CHATBOT Act proposal is a workable start to addressing a critical issue of kids’ safety,” said Morgan Reed, president of the Association for Competitive Technology (ACT). “How many examples have we seen in the news in the last year of kids able to have explicit or dangerous conversations with open-ended chatbots or AI companions? While the devil is as always in the details, and improving the pre-emption provision will be a high priority to avoid adding to the patchwork of state laws, the bill is a genuine signal that Congress is willing to pursue a narrowly targeted approach that focuses on high-risk uses of AI, avoiding ill-defined mandates that would ensnare lower-risk uses.”
Responding to well-documented cases of AI chatbots and companions having explicit conversations with minors and the internal rules that allowed it, this proposal incorporates positive elements from the debate over parental control of kids’ access to mobile applications that ACT has supported, specifically the Parents Over Platforms Act (POPA).
“It’s positive to see this proposal follow the parents first approach reflected in the Parents Over Platforms Act (POPA), which seeks to provide tools that will empower parents rather than ecosystem-wide mandates that do little to keep our kids safe from evolving threats” Reed continued.
We look forward to working with the sponsors on ways to address our concerns and outstanding questions to build on the positive elements in the proposal.
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About Association for Competitive Technology (ACT)
ACT is a global technology trade association representing startups, scaleups, small technology businesses. We work directly with our members worldwide to advocate for a policy environment that takes into account their real-world challenges and supports innovation, access to capital, job creation, and the ability of small technology companies to grow and compete globally.