Marc Benioff shared what he thinks is the darkest facet of AI.
On an episode of the “TBPN” present streamed on Wednesday, the Salesforce CEO mentioned that he could not “imagine what he was watching” when he noticed a “60 Minutes” documentary on chatbot-building startup Character.AI and its impression on youngsters.
“We do not know the way these fashions work. And to see the way it was working with these youngsters, after which the children ended up taking their lives,” he mentioned, “That is the worst factor I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Character.AI permits customers to construct customized chatbots that may emulate the behaviour of an in depth pal or romantic companion. The startup didn’t instantly reply to Enterprise Insider’s request for remark about Benioff’s remarks.
“Tech firms hate regulation. They hate it,” Benioff mentioned. “Aside from one regulation they love: Part 230. Which signifies that these firms will not be held accountable for these suicides.”
Part 230 of the 1996 US Communications Decency Act protects social media firms from legal responsibility for user-generated content material whereas additionally letting them average posts. Tech giants use Part 230 as a standard protection technique, saying they’re simply platforms and never answerable for what customers say and do on them.
“The first step is let’s simply maintain individuals accountable,” he mentioned. “Let’s reshape, reform, revise Part 230, and let’s attempt to save as many lives as we are able to by doing that.”
Executives, together with Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, have repeatedly defended the regulation in Congress, asking for it to be expanded slightly than eliminated.
Final week, Google and Character.AI agreed to settle multiple lawsuits from households whose youngsters died by suicide or harm themselves after interacting with Character.AI’s chatbots.
These negotiations are among the many first settlements in lawsuits that accuse AI instruments of contributing to psychological well being crises and suicides amongst youngsters. OpenAI and Meta are dealing with related lawsuits as they, together with others, race to construct giant language fashions that sound extra pleasant and useful, in the end retaining customers coming again.
