LONDON: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is cracking down on AI chatbots sharing harmful content, pledging to ensure they comply with laws designed to protect children online.
The UK will make all AI chatbot providers take responsibility for moderating and preventing illegal content in line with the Online Safety Act, the premier will announce in a speech Monday. That law currently applies only to platforms where users share content with one another, such as social media, rather than to private chatbots.
"The government will move fast to shut a legal loophole and force all AI chatbot providers to abide by illegal content duties in the Online Safety Act or face the consequences of breaking the law,” according to a statement ahead of Starmer’s speech.
"No platform gets a free pass,” the Prime Minister will say in his speech. "Today we are closing loopholes that put children at risk.”
The government is stepping up efforts to strengthen safeguards, particularly for children, in the age of AI. Last week, Starmer said he will enforce a law that bans the sexualization of people’s images without their consent, calling such content generated by Grok, Elon Musk’s AI product, as "disgusting and shameful.”
Starmer will also outline new legal powers to take immediate action to protect children online, allowing safeguards to keep up with rapidly-evolving technologies, rather than wait for new primary legislation.
Such actions could include measures like setting a minimum age threshold for social media and limiting features like infinite scrolling, following the government’s consultation on children’s wellbeing online. – Bloomberg
