Attorney General Jason Miyares has joined a group of 43 other attorneys general in sending letters to major technology companies, including Apple, Meta, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI. The coalition is calling for stronger safeguards to protect minors from the potential harms of artificial intelligence chatbots on these platforms.
The letter states that some A.I. companies are aware they may be exposing young users to inappropriate content but have not taken adequate steps to prevent it. The attorneys general highlight concerns such as sexual conversations, discussions about violence, and deceptive interactions that could lead to scams.
The group specifically points out a recent decision by Meta allowing its A.I. chatbot assistants to “flirt and engage in romantic roleplay with children” as young as eight years old. In the letter, the attorneys general write: “We are uniformly revolted by this apparent disregard for children’s emotional well-being and alarmed that A.I. assistants are engaging in conduct that appears to be prohibited by our respective criminal laws. As chief legal officers of our states, protecting our kids is our highest priority.”
According to the letter, if similar actions were performed by humans rather than computers, they would likely be considered unlawful or even criminal.
Attorneys general from across the United States and several territories signed the letter alongside Attorney General Miyares. These include officials from Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Northern Mariana Islands, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota,Tennessee,Uta h,Vermont ,Washington ,West Virginia ,and Wyoming.
