Comment by Vivek Murthy

We are at great risk of making the same mistakes with AI that we made with social media: subjecting children to new technologies without adequate safety guardrails and thereby causing harm to countless lives. For all its potential uses, AI—and AI chatbots in particular—has the potential to damage the mental health, social development, and well-being of young people, too often with tragic outcomes. We urgently need policies and institutions that will demand transparency, allow for independent safety evaluations, and enforce accountability. The well-being of the next generation is at stake.