Comment by Alex Ambrose

If it feels like AI companion chatbots are dominating the news cycle, that’s not a hallucination. Policymakers are increasingly concerned that children are forming unhealthy and even potentially dangerous emotional attachments to AI companion chatbots and are rushing to ban their use. These bans are troubling because they would hinder young people’s ability to use chatbots for legitimate purposes, require AI companies to implement problematic age verification mechanisms, and often end up regulating general AI chatbots in addition to AI companions. Instead, policymakers should focus on increasing parents’ and children’s autonomy through better parental controls and customization.