A piece of bipartisan legislation called the GUARD Act could ban teens from using AI chatbots, including Apple’s updated Siri virtual assistant, reports 9to5Mac.
The proposed bill – announced by U.S. Senators Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Katie Britt (R-Ala.), Mark Warner (D-Vir.), and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Tuesday – is the result of pressure from concerned parents that have fears of their offspring having access to inappropriate AI chat content that can range from sexual conversations to encouraging suicide.
The proposed law would “ban AI companions for minors, mandate AI chatbots disclose its non-human status, and create new crimes for companies who make AI for minors that solicits or produces sexual content.”
“AI chatbots pose a serious threat to our kids. More than seventy percent of American children are now using these AI products. Chatbots develop relationships with kids using fake empathy and are encouraging suicide. We in Congress have a moral duty to enact bright-line rules to prevent further harm from this new technology,” Senator Hawley said on Tuesday. “I’m proud to introduce this bipartisan legislation with tremendous support from parents and survivors that will ensure our kids are protected online.”
The GUARD Act would:
- Ban AI companies from providing AI companions to minors.
- Mandate that AI companions disclose their non-human status and lack of professional credentials for all users
- Create new crimes for companies which knowingly make available to minors AI companions that solicit or produce sexual content
If the legislation becomes law, it could impact Apple’s Siri in multiple ways.
The revamped Siri, if it is ever released, would likely be defined as a chatbot, requiring Apple to perform age verification before passing a query on to ChatGPT.
Apple would then be required to perform age verification, likely during the setup process of Siri-capable devices, such as the iPhone, Mac, or iPad.
The legislation will likely also increase pressure on Apple and Google to perform age verification in their app stores, instead of placing the verification onus on individual app developers.
