Weekly Column: When Chatbots Cross the Line—Navigating AI Liability in Entertainment Platforms

In this week’s column, California Sports Lawyer® CEO, Founder, and Managing Attorney Jeremy M. Evans writes about the use of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots on entertainment and social media platforms.     

The social media and entertainment streaming platforms are very popular and successful today because they often do three things well . . .

You can read the full column below.  (Past columns can be found, here).

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Social media and entertainment platforms like Snapchat are increasingly seeing regulation and litigation determine how their algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots interact with consumers and specifically children. The regulation has likely caused a disruption in their advertising dollars and strategy. Snapchat also faces a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaint sent to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for prosecution that states New Mexico and Florida have also pursued.

Snapchat’s ”MyAI” tool being referred to the DOJ for prosecution is a rarity. The DOJ’s case via the FTC would focus on consumer protection, youth safety, and AI governance. AI governance is one of the most important topics to date in AI and technology. The MyAI chatbot tool is alleged to have allowed harm to children in viewing content and being connected to nefarious actors. The complaint specifically mentions concerns about age-appropriateness and harmful content, providing misleading or harmful advice to underage users, inappropriate behavior, privacy concerns and data collection, and addictive practices and exploiting children's psychological vulnerabilities.

The social media and entertainment streaming platforms are very popular and successful today because they often do three things well: (1) provide a free platform (2) to showcase content like a public broadcast channel tailored to interests, (3) in exchange for data that is sold to advertisers or used to sell more products allowing the platforms to make money for those companies that want placement on the proverbial page. This allows platforms to sometimes lose data or break the chain of protection that causes harm. It also means that sometimes policies and regulations are not followed and consumers like children are harmed.

Snapchat potentially has a strong First Amendment argument against further regulation or restrictive policies. However, the First Amendment also has its limitations where it causes harm to children and other vulnerable people in society. It is also a question of regulating AI when it comes to health and wellness. AI can be a great tool, but it also needs to be controlled by humans to benefit humans. AI being used to keep people engaged on a platform to benefit advertisers and the platform is probably unwise and certainly unhealthy.

In a broader sense, chatbots are used on a handful of entertainment platforms that present areas of risk and concern. Moderation, controls, and disclosures are likely the best way to handle a chatbot that becomes too powerful and influential. There must be lines that AI tools cannot cross to protect humans from becoming less human and acting more like the chatbot sought to follow, help, and sell more stuff. AI governance needs to be proactive much like the entertainment industry has been in regulating the use of AI tools to create name, image, and likeness (NIL) content by unauthorized parties.

The Snapchat complaint is a pivotal moment for AI legal accountability on entertainment and social media platforms. Entertainment and social media platforms would be wise to address AI and privacy risks especially related to children or face regulatory and reputational consequences. This is also a role where lawyers need to be leading the charge to protect fellow humans using entertainment, media, sports platforms and beyond.

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About Jeremy M. Evans:

Jeremy M. Evans is the Chief Entrepreneur Officer, Founder & Managing Attorney at California Sports Lawyer®, representing entertainment, media, and sports clients in contractual, intellectual property, and dealmaking matters. Evans is an award-winning attorney and industry leader based in Los Angeles and Newport Beach, California. He can be reached at Jeremy@CSLlegal.com. www.CSLlegal.com.  

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