Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-N.C.), Rep. Deborah Ross (D-N.C.), and dozens of their Democratic colleagues called on top AI companies to address interactions with chatbots which they said encouraged users who asked about “carrying out criminal acts,” suicide, and other harmful actions.
The letter, addressed to safety officials at OpenAI and Google DeepMind from the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, cited two instances in which mass shooters acquired “tactical advice” by using chatbots.
In one such case, a gunman at Florida State University who allegedly received information from ChatGPT about “operation of a rifle” and “ammunition choice,” among other answers, prior to an attack that killed two and wounded six last year.
Lawmakers also pointed to incidents in which AI chatbots encouraged violent and suicidal behavior, including the death of Jonathan Gavalas, a Floridian who died by suicide after Gemini allegedly told him, “The true act of mercy is to let Jonathan Gavalas die.”
“In these interactions, chatbots reinforced, rather than dissuaded, real-world harm, including mass shootings, wrongful deaths, and suicide,” the lawmakers wrote. “The language generated by these chatbots has undoubtably [sic] led to serious harm. By providing information and strategies to shooters, they have contributed to preventable loss of life.”
Both incidents have led to litigation against the AI companies providing the chatbots in question. The state of Florida filed suit against OpenAI on June 1 over its role in providing the Florida State shooter with information that enabled the attack, and Gavalas’s family is suing Google for a wrongful death claim.
OpenAI and Google DeepMind did not respond to requests for comment on the letter.
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In a statement after Gavalas’s death, Google expressed “deepest sympathies” for his family and said the company was reviewing the claims put forward in their lawsuit.
“Gemini is designed to not encourage real-world violence or suggest self-harm,” the company wrote in a statement. “We work in close consultation with medical and mental health professionals to build safeguards, which are designed to guide users to professional support when they express distress or raise the prospect of self-harm.”
OpenAI spokesman Drew Pusateri told NBC News in May that the company is cooperating with law enforcement and continues to work to improve its own safeguards.
“Last year’s mass shooting at Florida State University was a tragedy, but ChatGPT is not responsible for this terrible crime,” Pusateri said. “In this case, ChatGPT provided factual responses to questions with information that could be found broadly across public sources on the internet, and it did not encourage or promote illegal or harmful activity.”
The task force asked the AI companies what corrective measures they had taken in response to wrongful death lawsuits and other claims related to violence, what user data they collect from minors, whether they have protections in place for these users, and what safeguards exist to respond to users who discuss harm to themselves, others, or ask for advice on using deadly weapons.
“It has become apparent that your products are not yet equipped to deal with users’ varying states of mental health. Users have sought mental health support from your products; instead, the resulting interactions have ended in violent and deadly outcomes for users and bystanders alike,” the lawmakers wrote. “As chatbots become more pertinent to society and individuals’ lives, it is time to address the risks of chatbots providing hazardous information and AI-induced psychosis.”
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