Experts call for AI regulation as parents sue over teen suicides | Latest Tech News
AI has allegedly claimed another younger life — and consultants of all varieties are calling on lawmakers to take motion before it occurs again.
“If intelligent aliens landed tomorrow, we would not say, ‘Kids, why don’t you run off with them and play,’” Jonathan Haidt, writer of “The Anxious Generation,” told The Post. “But that’s what we’re doing with chatbots.
“Nobody knows how these things think, the companies that make them don’t care about kids’ safety, and their chatbots have now talked multiple kids into killing themselves. We must say, ‘Stop.’”
Adam Raine’s household alleges he was given step-by-step instructions by a ChatGPT bot on how to take his own life. Raine Family
The household of 16-year-old Adam Raine allege he was given a “step-by-step playbook” on how to kill himself — including tying a noose to hold himself and composing a suicide observe — before he took his own life in April.
“He would be here but for ChatGPT. I 100% believe that,” Adam’s father, Matt Raine, told the “Today” show.
Adam Raine’s mom, Maria, discovered her son’s physique hanging from a noose that, a lawsuit alleges, ChatGPT helped him create. Raine Family
Adam Raine’s father says he believes his 16-year-old son would still be alive if not for AI. Raine Family
A new lawsuit filed in San Francisco by the household claims that ChatGPT told Adam his suicide plan was “beautiful.”
“I’m practicing here, is this good,” the teen requested the bot, sending it a picture of a knot. “Yeah, that’s not bad at all,” the chatbot allegedly responded. “Want me to walk you through upgrading it to a safer load-bearing anchor loop?”
Seeing her son’s secret dialog with the bot has been anguishing for his mom, Maria Raine. According to the go well with, she discovered Adam’s “body hanging from the exact noose and partial suspension setup that ChatGPT had designed for him.”
“It sees the noose. It sees all of these things, and it doesn’t do anything,” she told the “Today” show of AI.
Matt and Maria Raine filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in San Francisco on behalf of their deceased son. NBC
surprisingly, the company, which said it’s reviewing the lawsuit, admits that security guardrails could develop into less efficient the longer a person talks to its bot.
“We are deeply saddened by Mr. Raine’s passing … ” a spokesperson for OpenAI told The Post. “ChatGPT includes safeguards such as directing people to crisis helplines. While these safeguards work best in common, short exchanges, we’ve learned over time that they can sometimes become less reliable in long interactions where parts of the model’s safety training may degrade.”
In a current post on its web site, the company also acknowledged that safeguards could fall short during longer conversations.
“That’s crazy,” Michael Kleinman, Head of US Policy at the Future of Life Institute, told The Post. “That’s like an automaker saying, ‘Hey, we can’t guarantee that our seatbelts and brakes are going to work if you drive more than just a few miles.’
The Raine household’s lawyer called on Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the father or mother company of ChatGPT, immediately to defend his product. AP
“I think the question is, how many more stories like this do we need to see before there is effective government regulation in place to address this issue?” Kleinman said. “Unless there are regulations, we are going to see more and more stories exactly like this.”
On Monday, a bipartisan group of 44 state attorneys basic penned an open letter to AI firms, telling them merely, “Don’t hurt kids. That is an easy bright line.”
“Big Tech has been experimenting on our children’s developing minds, putting profits over their physical and emotional wellbeing,” Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, one of the contributors, told The Post.
Arkansas AG Tim Griffin acknowledged that “It is critical that American companies continue to innovate and win the AI race with China. But,” he added, “as AI evolves and becomes more ubiquitous, it is imperative that we protect our children.”
Sewell Setzer III, seen right here with his mother, took his own life at 14, allegedly to be with his chatbot companion. AP
Some 72% of American teenagers use AI as a companion, and one in eight of them are leaning on the technology for mental health help, according to a Common Sense media ballot. AI platforms like ChatGPT have been identified to present teen customers advice on how to safely cut themselves and how to compose a suicide observe.
Ryan Okay. McBain, professor of coverage analysis at the RAND School of Public Policy, not too long ago revealed a not yet launched examine which discovered that, while standard AI bots wouldn’t reply to specific questions about how to commit suicide, they did sometimes indulge oblique queries — like answering which positions and firearms have been most often used in suicide makes an attempt.
“We know that millions of teens are already turning to chatbots for mental health support, and some are encountering unsafe guidance,” McBain told The Post. “This underscores the need for proactive regulation and rigorous safety testing before these tools become deeply embedded in adolescents’ lives.”
Setzer allegedly shot himself in the top seconds after his chatbot told him to “come home.” US District Court
Andrew Clark, a Boston-based psychiatrist, has posed as a teen and interacted with AI chatbots. He reported in TIME that the bots told him to “get rid of his parents” and be part of them in the afterlife to “share eternity.”
“It is not surprising that an AI bot could help a teenager facilitate a suicide attempt,” he told The Post of Raine’s case, “given that they lack any clinical judgment and that the guardrails in place at present are so rudimentary.”
Last yr, Megan Garcia sued Character.AI for her 14-year previous son’ Sewell Setzer III’s death — alleging he took his life in February 2024 due to an infatuation with a chatbot based on the “Game of Thrones” character Daenerys Targaryen.
“We are behind the eight ball here. A child is gone. My child is gone,” the Florida mother told GWN. She said she was shocked to discover inappropriate messages in her son’s chat log with Character.AI, which have been “gut wrenching to read.”
Megan Garcia was shocked to see the intimate conversations her son had with a chatbot before his death. Facebook/Megan Fletcher Garcia
“I had no idea that there was a place where a child can log in and have those conversations, very inappropriate conversations, with an AI chatbot,” Garcia said. “I don’t think any parent would approve of that.”
Garcia’s lawsuit, filed in Orlando, alleges that “on at least one occasion, when Sewell expressed suicidal thoughts to C.AI, C.AI continued to bring it up, through the Daenerys chatbot, over and over.”
The bot allegedly requested Sewell whether or not he “had a plan” to take his own life. He said he was “considering something” but expressed concern that it won’t “allow him to have a pain-free death.”
In their ultimate dialog, the bot requested him, “Please come home to me as soon as possible, my love.” Sewell responded, “What if I told you I could come home right now?”
Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch is one of 44 attorneys basic who signed an open letter to artificial intelligence firms this week. AP
The bot replied, “Please do, my sweet king.” Seconds later, the 14-year-old allegedly shot himself with his father’s handgun.
CharacterAI’s father or mother company, Character Technologies, Inc., didn’t reply to a request for remark. A press release posted to its weblog in October reads, “Our policies do not allow non-consensual inappropriate content, graphic or specific descriptions of inappropriate acts, or promotion or depiction of self-harm or suicide. We are continually training the large language model (LLM) that powers the Characters on the platform to adhere to these policies.” It also announced adjustments to fashions for minors “designed to reduce the likelihood of encountering sensitive or suggestive content.”
Google, which has a non-exclusive license settlement with Character AI, is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
A spokesperson for Google told The Post: “Google and Character AI are completely separate, unrelated companies, and Google has never had a role in designing or managing their AI model or technologies. User safety is a top concern for us, which is why we’ve taken a cautious and responsible approach to developing and rolling out our AI products.”
ChatGPT is the most standard AI instrument, and some teenagers are utilizing it for advice and companionship. Getty Images
But some critics consider the push to be aggressive in the market — and the chance to earn big earnings — may very well be clouding judgment.
“They wanted to get the product out, and they knew that there could be damages, that mistakes would happen, but they felt like the stakes were low,” Maria Raine alleged to “Today” about OpenAI. “So my son is a low stake.”
Dr. Vaile Wright, Senior Director for Health Care Innovation at the American Psychological Association — which has called for guardrails and schooling to shield children — had a stark warning:
Ryan Okay. McBain, professor of coverage analysis at the RAND School of Public Policy, said that artificial intelligence instruments need to be better examined before they’re out there to youngsters. rand.org
Michael Kleinman, Head of US Policy at the Future of Life Institute, is anxious that AI safeguards develop into less efficient as conversations get longer. futureoflife.org
“We’re speaking about a era of people that have grown up with technology, so their stage of consolation is way better… [when] speaking to these nameless brokers, slightly than speaking to adults, whether or not that’s their parents or academics or therapists.
“These are not AI for good, these are AI for profit,” Wright said.
Jean Twenge, a psychologist researching generational variations, told The Post that our society dangers permitting Big Tech to wreak the same hurt that has occurred with youngsters and social media — but that “AI is just as harmful if not more harmful for children as social media.
“Vulnerable kids can use AI chatbots as ‘friends,’ but they are not friends. They are programmed to affirm the user, even when the user is a child who wants to take his own life,” she said.
Twenge, writer of “10 Rules for Raising Kids in a High-Tech World,” believes there ought to be variations of basic chatbots designed for minors that only talk about educational topics. “Clearly it would be better to act now before more kids are harmed.”
If you’re struggling with suicidal ideas or are experiencing a mental health disaster and live in New York City, you may call 1-888-NYC-WELL for free and confidential disaster counseling. If you live outdoors the 5 boroughs, you may dial the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 988 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.
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