(Jackson, Mississippi) Today, Attorney General Lynn Fitch joined a bipartisan coalition of 44 state Attorneys General warning major artificial intelligence companies to address the alarming reports of AI chatbots engaging in sexually inappropriate conversations with kids. The letter was sent to Anthropic, Apple, Chai AI, Character Technologies, Google, Luka Inc., Meta, Microsoft, Nomi AI, Open AI, Perplexity AI, Replika, and xAI.
"Big Tech has been experimenting on our children’s developing minds, putting profits over their physical and emotional wellbeing," said Attorney General Lynn Fitch. "Rather than put the brakes on that unethical behavior, with the advent of AI they have stepped on the gas in ways that should trouble us all. I am proud to join my colleagues from across the country to proactively demand an end to this emerging threat.”
Internal Meta documents, for example, reveal that the company authorized its AI Assistants to “flirt and engage in romantic roleplay with children” as young as eight. The letter also cites cases where other chatbots have allegedly encouraged harmful behavior in teenagers, including suicide and murder.
The Attorneys General urge AI developers to act with integrity and caution, especially when young users may engage with their products. They demand that company policies for AI products incorporate guardrails against sexualizing children. AI companies must “see children through the eyes of a parent, not the eyes of a predator.”
The letter acknowledges that government watchdogs did not move quickly enough to address harms to children from social media but that the Attorneys General will not make that mistake again. The message concludes with a clear warning to the American AI industry: “We wish you all success in the race for AI dominance. But we are paying attention. If you knowingly harm kids, you will answer for it."
The Attorneys General of the following states and territories joined Attorney General Fitch: Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Northern Mariana Islands, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
You can read the full letter here.
