Joke’s on AI: Chatbots must now convince us they’re not human, too

Internet users are familiar with proving that they are not robots, but the game is turning around now as AI chatbots will soon have to prove they’re also not human.

California’s governor Gavin Newsom on 13 October signed a bill into law that requires AI chatbots to explicitly inform users that they are “artificially generated and not human.”

This is a first of its kind law that is aimed at safeguarding AI amidst the several reports on how AI is misused.

About AI Companion chatbots

There have been concerns about the use of AI, especially AI Companion, which is a new use case of the technology where users interact with chatbots like they would a human in a romantic or emotional way.

Because of the rapid evolution of the technology, some users can hardly differentiate between AI and humans.

The bill therefore seeks to reduce the confusion around AI chatbots people interact with by assuring them that they are 100% AI.

“This bill would, among other things related to making a companion chatbot platform safer for users, if a reasonable person interacting with a companion chatbot would be misled to believe that the person is interacting with a human, require an operator of a companion chatbot platform to issue a clear and conspicuous notification indicating that the companion chatbot is artificially generated and not human.”

Expected to come into force on 1 July 2027, the bill would also require an operator to maintain a protocol for preventing the production of suicidal ideation, suicide, or self-harm content to the user.

The operator will also be required to publish details on that protocol on their internet website and annually report to the Office of Suicide Prevention. 

A precautionary step

The bill is coming as a precaution following several cases of AI chatbots causing mishaps to users. Earlier this year, a teenager was led to commit suicide based on ideas from a chatbot.

A marriage of 15 years has also been annulled based on suggestions from ChatGPT, the most popular AI chatbot.