Now, AI chatbots are being layered onto social media experiences. These AI bots can influence behavior, emotions, and identity. Yet these powerful, persuasive tools are being handed to young users who are still developing the maturity to handle them.
Businesses have faced this kind of regulatory challenge before. We set age limits on driving, smoking, and consuming alcohol, knowing rules are imperfect and will sometimes be broken. And yet we still set them because we know such policies can improve, and sometimes save, lives.
Now, we must give our children a chance to develop before making consequential choices that could significantly affect their well-being. To do this, we must understand that we have made similarly hard choices before—and that they paid off.
Imperfect protection is better than none. When we make excuses for not acting in the public’s best interest, tech CEOs sound like 20th-century tobacco executives who had to be shamed and sued into submission. This is why many, including myself, have called social media the New Big Tobacco.
