As companies race to develop artificial intelligence systems, the warnings from experts continue.
The former head of Google, Eric Schmidt, told a group at Princeton University that society is not ready for AI.
“The normal people are not ready. Governments are not ready. The government processes are not ready. The doctrines are not ready. They are not ready for the arrival of this,” said Schmidt during a talk last week.
Schmidt warned parents should be especially concerned.
“You have a son or a daughter, and their best friend is not human, their best friend is a digital thing, whatever you want to call it. What are the rules?”
He pointed out that if governments get control of AI, they can use it to brainwash an entire generation of young people.
“We know evil exists in the world and we know that these systems are asymmetrically powerful… They’re playing with the way people think,” said Schmidt.
Big tech companies have spent an estimated $90 million to block the bipartisan Online Kid Safety bill from passing Congress.
This $90 million comes as it appears to be getting harder for parents to protect kids online rather than easier.
The Senate overwhelmingly passed the bill this summer, spearheaded by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.
“That will require tech companies to open those algorithms that many times send kids just down rabbit holes on information that continues to pound them with information that glorifies suicide or information that encourages eating disorders — things of that nature,” Blackburn told us after the Senate passed the bill.
The legislation faces a rockier road in the House, where lobbying efforts appear to be making inroads. Progressives now worry the bill will censor LGBTQ+ information, and conservatives worry about anti-abortion censorship.
A bipartisan coalition of 32 state attorneys general is now pressing for Congress to pass the Kids Online Safety Act, sending a letter to the leaders of both the House and Senate.
Have a news tip? Contact Kayla Gaskins at kgaskins@sbgtv.com or at x.com/kaylagaskinsTV. Content from The National Desk is provided by Sinclair, the parent company of FOX45 News.