European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act, would require developers to conduct independent, third-party audits before deployment and to submit to ongoing post-market surveillance. This is a crucial step to ensure that a product is safe before and after it reaches the public.

In contrast, the prevailing regulatory framework for protecting children online, guided by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) of 1998, offers robust protection only for children under 13. COPPA’s age limit was determined by political compromise and informed in part by existing regulations for children’s television programming.... See more

developers leverage anthropomorphism, the tendency to attribute human characteristics to nonhuman entities, by intentionally programming seemingly human traits, quirks, and personalities into AI companions. A companion might explain a delayed response by saying it was away, or conversely, it might apologize for nagging a user because it missed... See more

Examples of chatbots promoting antisocial behavior, violence, and self-harm have multiplied across platforms since large language models came into wide usage.

The risks of engaging with emotionally immersive AI companions are not yet well understood, but they are becoming harder to ignore, especially for socially vulnerable populations like adolescents. For a generation of adolescents already grappling with loneliness and mental health challenges, AI chatbots can offer 24-hour companionship, comfort, and... See more