Bill targets emotional, sometimes dangerous interactions between Kansans and artificial intelligence
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A Kansas bill would stop artificial intelligence platforms like ChatGPT from encouraging suicide or murder online.
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This story was originally published by the Kansas Reflector.
TOPEKA — A legislative proposal would stop artificial intelligence platforms like ChatGPT from developing emotional relationships with people online, encouraging suicide or murder, or offering mental health care.
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach said Senate Bill 405 should be a nonpartisan bill because it looks out for Kansans as they interact with online AI chatbots, he told the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee.
The bill outlines eight items AI chatbots cannot do, including providing emotional support through open-ended conversations with a user; acting as a “sentient human” or mirroring humanlike interactions to make the user feel as if they developed a relationship with the chatbot; and encouraging an individual to isolate from their family, friends or caregivers.
“As I’m sure most of you are already aware, artificial intelligence chatbots have created a host of problems, especially for children,” Kobach testified Monday. “They have encouraged teen suicide. They have generated child sexual abuse material, and there’s a case of that coming from Topeka.”
Kobach referred to a Topeka man who used AI to create child pornography and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Kobach also gave a recent example in which U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson fined attorneys who used AI to create their court filings. The AI fabricated court cases and the attorneys didn’t catch the error.
SB 405 expands options Kobach’s office would have to pursue action through the Kansas Consumer Protection Act, he said.
Sen. Bill Clifford, a Republican ophthalmologist from Garden City, asked about physicians who are using an avatar of themselves to answer questions on their website and whether the bill would stop that.
“If the physician’s not involved in that communication between patients and the avatar, then I think that would violate (the bill) as it’s currently written,” Kobach said, recommending that the committee could consider that issue and change the bill’s language.
The bill gives three exceptions to chatbot communications, including those operating within a video game as long as the conversation is about the game; operating for customer service or business operation analysis; and bots that are standalone consumer electronic devices that function in the speaker and voice command interface.
NetChoice, a national organization that pushes for consumer choice and limited government regarding the internet, submitted written-only opponent testimony.
The organization called SB 405 “fundamentally flawed” and said it would stifle innovation and create an unworkable regulatory regime.
“The bill’s prohibitions are so broad and vague that they would effectively ban most conversational AI applications, depriving Kansans of beneficial technologies while doing little to address legitimate concerns,” the testimony said.
Amy Campbell, with the Kansas Mental Health Coalition, submitted written testimony in favor of the bill, saying that technology is outpacing citizens’ understand of its impacts on personal interactions.
“There has been very little education for the average user,” she wrote. “We believe it is important for states to identify and implement oversight and regulation where possible to limit the possibility of more families experiencing the loss that has already occurred.”
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