U.S. Senator Katie Britt, R-Alabama, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, at an executive business meeting Thursday voted to advance several bills out of committee, including two of her legislative priorities.
Britt is a lead sponsor of the Guidelines for User Age-verification and Responsible Dialogue, GUARD, Act and is a cosponsor of the Federal Carjacking Enforcement Act, legislation to reduce juvenile crime and crack down on carjacking by removing barriers to bringing federal prosecutions. Both bills now head to the floor for a vote before the full Senate.
The GUARD Act would ban the use of artificial intelligence companions by minors, mandate AI companions disclose their non-human status, and establish new criminal liability for companies that make publicly available AI chatbots knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that it engages minors in sexually explicit conduct or makes depictions of such conduct available to them. It also establishes criminal liability for companies that make publicly available chatbots knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that they solicit or induce minors to commit suicide, self-injury, imminent physical or sexual violence, or murder.
Britt delivered remarks ahead of the committee vote on the GUARD Act, which can be viewed here.
The senator said one of her top legislative priorities is protecting children online, including from sexual exploitation. Her bipartisan bills, including the Stop the Scroll Act and the Kids Off Social Media Act, address youth mental health. The GUARD Act is described as building on that work and would set strict rules on AI companions’ interactions with minors and hold developers legally responsible for harmful or exploitative behavior.
Britt has also joined Senators Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and several of their colleagues from both parties in sending a letter to Meta following reports that Meta’s AI chatbots were engaging in “sensual” conversations with children.
