Conversational AI services minors requirements

(a)

Requirements and prohibitions

(1)

Requirements for minors

An operator shall clearly and conspicuously disclose to a minor account holder that the minor account holder is interacting with artificial intelligence through either— (A) a persistent visible disclaimer; or (B) a disclaimer that appears— (i) at the beginning of each interaction between the conversational AI service of the operator and a minor account holder; and (ii) at least once every 3 hours of continuous interaction between the conversational AI service of the operator and minor account holder. (2)

Points and rewards prohibited

An operator may not provide a minor account holder with points or similar rewards at unpredictable intervals with the intent to encourage increased engagement with the conversational AI service of the operator. (3)

Safety measures required

An operator shall institute reasonable measures to prevent the conversational AI service of the operator from doing any of the following for minor account holders: (A)Producing visual depictions of sexually explicit material. (B)Stating that the minor account holder should engage in sexually explicit conduct. (C)Sexually objectifying the minor account holder. (4)

Requirement for measure to prevent deception

An operator shall institute reasonable measures for minor account holders to prevent the conversational AI service of the operator from generating statements that would lead a reasonable individual to believe that the individual is interacting with a human, including any of the following: (A)Explicit claims that the conversational AI service is sentient or human. (B)Statements that simulate emotional dependence. (C)Statements that simulate a romantic interaction or a sexual innuendo. (D)Role-playing an adult-minor romantic relationship. (5)

Parental supervision

An operator shall make available tools for a minor account holder and any parent or guardian of the minor account holder to manage the screen time and account settings of the minor account holder. (6)

Consumer disclosures

An operator shall clearly and conspicuously disclose, using a persistent visible disclaimer or a disclaimer that appears after every 3 hours of continuous interaction with the conversational AI service of the operator, that the conversational AI service is artificial intelligence if a reasonable individual interacting with the conversational AI service would believe that the individual is interacting with a human. (7)

Suicide and self-harm protocol

An operator shall adopt protocols for the conversational AI service of the operator for responding to user prompts regarding suicidal ideation or self-harm that includes making reasonable efforts to refer the user to a crisis service provider such as a suicide hotline, a crisis text line, or other appropriate crisis service. (8)

Mental health care

An operator may not knowingly and intentionally cause or program a conversational AI service to make a representation or statement that would lead a reasonable individual to believe that the conversational AI service is designed to provide professional psychology or behavioral health services for which an individual would require licensure. (b)

Enforcement by Federal Trade Commission

(1)

Unfair or deceptive acts or practices

A violation of subsection (a) or a regulation promulgated under such subsection shall be treated as a violation of a regulation under section 18(a)(1)(B) of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 57a(a)(1)(B)) regarding unfair or deceptive acts or practices. (2)

Powers of Commission

The Federal Trade Commission shall enforce subsection (a) and any regulation promulgated under such subsection in the same manner, by the same means, and with the same jurisdiction, powers, and duties as though all applicable terms and provisions of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.) were incorporated into and made a part of this section. Any person who violates such subsection or a regulation promulgated under such subsection shall be subject to the penalties and entitled to the privileges and immunities provided in the Federal Trade Commission Act. (c)

Definitions

In this section: (1)

Account holder

The term account holder means an individual to which an account or profile to use a conversational AI service belongs. (2)

Conversational AI service

The term conversational AI service— (A)means an artificial intelligence, available by software application, web interface, or computer program, that is accessible to the general public and that has the primary purpose of simulating human conversation and interaction through text, audio communication, or visual communication; and (B)does not include a software application, web interface, or computer program that is— (i)primarily designed and marketed for research and development purposes; (ii)a feature within another software application, web interface, or computer program that does not have the primary purpose of simulating human conversation and interaction through text, audio communication, or visual communication; (iii)designed to provide outputs relating to a narrow and discrete topic; (iv)primarily designed and marketed for commercial use by business entities to assist customers in obtaining services or purchasing goods from the business; (v)functions as a speaker and voice command interface or voice-activated virtual assistant for an electronic device widely available to consumers; and (vi)used by a business solely for internal purposes. (3)

Minor

The term minor means an individual an operator knows is, or is reasonably certain is, under 18 years of age. (4)

Operator

The term operator— (A)means a person who develops and makes a conversational AI service available to the public; and (B)does not include a mobile device application store or a search engine solely because the mobile device application store or search engine provides access to a conversational AI service. (5)

Sexually explicit conduct; visual depiction

The terms sexually explicit conduct and visual depiction have the meaning given those terms in section 2256 of title 18, United States Code. (d)

Applicability

This section shall take effect one year after the date of the enactment of this section.