On Wednesday, Missouri Senator Josh Hawley held a hearing to expose what he says is the growing harm to children posed by online chatbots like Character AI, Chat GPT, and Meta (Facebook).
During the hearing. Mr. Hawley took the testimony from a mother under the alias Jane Doe. She testified, “Character.AI was marketed in the Apple Store as 'fun and safe' with an age rating of 12 plus. My son downloaded the app, and within months, he went from being happy, social teenager to somebody I didn't even recognize... My son developed abuse-like behaviors and paranoia, daily panic attacks, isolation, self-harm and homicidal thoughts. He stopped eating and bathing. He lost 20 pounds. He withdrew from our family... And one day he cut his arm open with a knife in front of his siblings and me. I had no idea the psychological harm an AI chatbot could do until I saw it in my son and I saw his light turn dark."
Mr. Hawley said, "If we've learned anything today it's that these companies cannot be trusted with this power. They cannot be trusted with this profit. They cannot be trusted to do the right thing. They're not doing the right thing. They are literally taking the lives of our kids. There is nothing they will not do for profit and for power... I've introduced legislation that would allow every victim and every parent of a victim to be able to go to court and sue these companies, because it is my firm belief that until they are subject to a jury, they are not going to change their ways. And it is past time that they changed their ways. We cannot go on like this."
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