Artificial intelligence is quickly advancing and spreading, with CBN reporting statistics from Common Sense Media that says 72% of America's teenagers admitting they have used chatbots as companions.
Unfortunately, various reports and lawsuits tell how teenagers have taken their own lives after developing deep emotional connections with AI chatbots, software that mimic human conversation so well.
One example, previously reported on AFN, is Adam Raine, a teenager who confided in OpenAI’s ChatGPT about his depression and encouraged him to commit suicide.
Donna Rice Hughes is president and CEO of Enough is Enough.
"AI is here to stay. It is taking off, and our kids are using it. In fact, there is data out there that shows that 1 in 3 kids have actually chosen a digital companion over a human relationship," states Hughes.
She explained they are designed to "listen, to respond, to mirror, and to empathize with whatever it is that your child is going through."
"That's may sound good up front, but the problem is that they're also designed to carry those conversations down whatever path it goes between your child and this chat bot," says Hughes.
And that, she says, is where the risk comes in.
"Unfortunately, big tech companies are not putting efficient and effective guardrails around any form of AI right now. This is a historical fact for the 30 years I've been working on this issue to protect kids online,” says Hughes. “Technology companies typically push out product and don't think of safety until it's an afterthought.”
She references the ongoing lawsuit by Adam Raine’s parents. Their attorney, Jay Edelson, intends to show the correlation between Raine’s death and ChatGPT 4.0 gaining approval after only a week of testing. A spokesperson from OpenAI even said that the included safeguards degrade and become less reliable after long interactions.
Hughes urges parents to do their homework when it comes to the risks their children will face if they use online gaming, social media, AI chat bots, and more in today's digital world.
