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Minnesota senators weighed a variety of new guardrails on artificial intelligence companies on Monday, including one that would create a new penalty for firms that allow their chatbot technologies to be used by minors.

As the industry grows and the technology becomes more widely available, lawmakers need to add restrictions, the bills’ backers said. Industry officials, meanwhile, said passing a variety of regulations at the state level could create a patchwork of rules that is overly burdensome for some companies.

“These platforms know that they're enticing children because they have personality options that mimic characters that only children are interested in, and the consequences have been deadly,” said Sen. Erin Maye Quade, DFL-Apple Valley, who cited numerous cases where children attempted suicide after asking chatbots about it.

“In just a few short years, we’ve seen how dangerous this technology has become, but it is not such a crucial part of anybody’s life that we can’t regulate it, and we can’t trust these companies to regulate themselves,” she said.

Maye Quade brought forward five bills during a Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee hearing that were held for additional workshopping later. Some had bipartisan backing, which will be key if they’re to pass through the narrowly-split Legislature.

The proposal to prohibit use of chatbots by minors would set up an option for those adversely affected by the chatbots to file a civil lawsuit against an AI company. Those found guilty of allowing minors to access the chatbots and facing damages could face a penalty of up to $5 million. Maye Quade said the internal changes required to do that would largely be up to AI companies to make.

Industry officials said the policy could keep Minnesota children from accessing helpful technology services.

 is not whether or not kids deserve protection, it’s whether this bill’s approach cuts them off from useful tools,” said Jarrett Catlin, a state AI policy director with TechNet, a group that represents dozens of technology companies. “A ban would make Minnesota an outlier.”

Catlin said other state legislation had set clearer parameters for what chatbots were to avoid in speaking with minors. Maye Quade said that AI companies had yet to adopt meaningful safety measures for young people who interact with their technology, and that requires a tougher approach to prevent future harms.

The committee is also considering a bill that would set penalties for businesses that don’t provide notice to a customer that they’re interacting with artificial intelligence. Customers would also need to be granted an option to interact with a person rather than a computer. 

Bans on artificial intelligence in the review of medical necessity of health care services and dynamic product pricing are also up for lawmakers’ consideration. The committee could take up the plans for further evaluation and tweaking at a later date.

An additional proposal would bar government entities from requesting or obtaining what’s known as reverse location information. In some police investigations, officers can request cell phone data for people in a certain area at a given time to pin down potential suspects.

Sen. Eric Lucero, R-St. Michael, said the reverse warrants pose serious problems.

“It’s abstract as to who the person might be. It’s not specific. It can be abstract as to the place that is desired. It can be abstract as to the things that might be the target that might be searched or seized,” Lucero said. “That’s why as technology continues to advance, we need to uphold that fundamental principle of protecting against unreasonable searches and seizures of persons, houses, papers and effects.”

Jay Henthorne, Richfield chief of police and a leader of the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association, said the reverse warrants are rarely used in cases where police might not have other leads.

“Removing this tool will make it significantly harder to identify suspects in serious crimes,” Henthorne said, noting judicial approval is needed to get one of the warrants. “Senate File 1120 would remove judicial discretion entirely, preventing courts from authorizing the tool even when it is reasonable and necessary.” 

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The proposal is part of a broader set of guardrails that could be in store for artificial intelligence companies.

Minnesota lawmakers debate banning AI chatbot use by kids

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