ai chatgpt chabot
Online chatbots like ChatGPT will be regulated by new internet laws, the government has confirmed.
Lord Parkinson, a junior minister in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, said artificial intelligence bots would be covered by the Online Safety Bill currently going through Parliament.
Both search results generated by chatbots and content posted by them on social media will be caught by the new laws, which aim to prevent tech companies from showing harmful content, especially to children.
Bringing bots within the purview of the law means tech companies could be penalized if the systems promote self-harm or eating disorder content to children.
ChatGPT, developed by Silicon Valley firm OpenAI, has exploded since its release in November. Microsoft has started incorporating OpenAI’s technology into its Bing search engine, while Google has promised a competitor bot called Bard.
However, concerns about their performance have grown. Many early testers of Microsoft’s Bing chatbot found that it would provide bizarre responses, including threats and false results. ChatGPT has been accused of being left-leaning after refusing to create text praising certain US Republicans but willingly doing so for Democrats.
In response to a parliamentary question from Balmacara Labor colleague Lord Stevenson, Lord Parkinson said: “The Online Safety Bill has been designed to be technology neutral to future-proof it and ensure the legislation keeps pace with new technologies.
“Content generated by artificial intelligence ‘bots’ falls within the scope of the bill where it interacts with user-generated content, such as B. on Twitter. Search services using AI-supported functions will also fall within the scope of the search obligations described in the draft law.”
ChatGPT and other so-called large language models are capable of generating eerily human-sounding responses and composing essays and poems on dozens of subjects.
Their rise has prompted several schools and universities to ban students from using it as a writing aid. Analysts have estimated that ChatGPT already has more than 100 million users, and usage of the technology is likely to continue to grow as Google and Microsoft integrate it into their search engines.
The Online Safety Act requires websites such as social networks and search engines to protect users from harmful content. They must prevent children from finding “legal but harmful” material related to abuse, harassment or self-harm and give controls to adults to weed it out.
Businesses face hefty fines or, in extreme cases, executives can be jailed if Ofcom, which will enforce the law, finds they have repeatedly broken it.
Last week, Microsoft introduced new restrictions on its Bing chatbot after realizing that long conversations could cause the service to elicit emotional or aggressive-looking responses.
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