Awhile back, we reported a concerning figure: 80% of Gen Z would consider marrying an AI.
And at least one state is taking that threat seriously.
According to NBC4, Ohio legislators introduced House Bill 469 for consideration, which would make it state law that no AI program would be recognized as a sentient being.
AI systems are declared to be nonsentient entities for all purposes under the laws of this state.
No AI system shall be granted the status of person or any form of legal personhood, nor be considered to possess consciousness, self-awareness, or similar traits of living beings.
The law then gives a list of all the things that prohibits AI from doing:
Marry a person or another AI
Be a manager or partner of any organization.
Own or control any form of property.
Bear any liability for the harm it causes.
That last part comes with a caveat that the owners of the AI will bear all liability for any harm an AI causes a human being.
The bill comes from Rep Thaddeus Claggett, who said,
As the computer systems improve in their capacity to act more like humans, we want to be sure we have prohibitions in our law that prohibit those systems from ever being human in their agency.
People need to understand, we're not talking about marching down the aisle to some tune and having a ceremony with the robot that'll be on our streets here in a year or two. That could happen, but that's not really what we're saying.
What he's really worried about is an AI system taking control of a person's power of attorney and making financial or medical decisions for them.
Instead, we're letting attorneys and doctors use AI to make those decisions for people. A survey of doctors showed that 66% (!!) are using AI for assistive diagnosis — despite its inaccuracy rate and known hallucination tendencies.
It would be great if these legislators making laws actually knew that AI wasn't real intelligence or even a semblance of it. It's just predictive software.
But I guess we'll at least have some protection on the books in case some future genius creates real artificial intelligence someday!
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