The Political Hat

     A bill has been repeatedly introduced to the Florida legislature that would not only require age verification (and thus identity verification), but also require that the A.I. “chatbot” keep full records and logs of a child’s interaction with it, with mandatory reporting if the A.I. thinks that there is an intent of self-harm. The later requirement would necessitate that any and all A.I. “chatbots” psychologically analyze children… which again bundled with the retention of records and logs. The bill, introduced for the May special session of the Florida legislature as SB482, was reintroduced as SB 2-D with minor changes, with the key portion stating:

501.9984 Companion chatbot use for minors.—

340 (1) A companion chatbot platform shall prohibit a minor from becoming or being an account holder unless the minor’s parent or guardian provides consent. If a companion chatbot platform allows a minor to become or be an account holder, the parties have entered into a contract.

(a) If the minor’s parent or guardian provides consent for the minor to become an account holder or maintain an existing account, the companion chatbot platform must allow the consenting parent or guardian of the minor account holder to:

Receive copies of all past or present interactions between the account holder and the companion chatbot;

Limit the amount of time that the account holder may interact with the companion chatbot each day;

Limit the days of the week and the times during the day when the account holder may interact with the companion chatbot;

Disable any of the interactions between the account holder and third-party account holders on the companion chatbot platform; and

Receive timely notifications if the account holder expresses to the companion chatbot a desire or an intent to engage in harm to self or others.

     No specific age verification scheme is included in the bill, but the current age verification regime Florida instituted for naughty things on the web is full active and mandatory regarding age verification.

     The mandatory retention of information, purportedly for the parents to use, creates a psychological profile which, sooner or later, will be abused and used to target children, parents, and adults who used the A.I. “chatbot” as as a child. Oh, the “personal information” held by the A.I. “chatbot” is supposed to be deleted, but this is absolutely no guarantee that the information can not, nor would be, abused.

     As of writing, the bill which had passed the state Senate, is currently listed as having “[d]ied in Information Technology Budget & Policy Subcommittee”, though it is unclear if it could potentially be revived.

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