A former Google trust and safety executive is warning that AI could pose risks to children even greater than those associated with social media. Tom Siegel argues that companies are deploying increasingly capable AI without sufficiently robust safeguards, pointing to concerns ranging from dangerous emotional dependence and mental-health crises to children outsourcing critical thinking to chatbots.
The bigger issue is whether the industry can realistically police itself as AI becomes embedded in the lives of young people. Siegel’s call for stronger age verification, independent safety testing and more rigorous oversight raises an uncomfortable question: are we deploying these systems faster than we understand their consequences?
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