Group Pushing Age Verification Requirements For AI Sneakily Backed By OpenAI - Slashdot
ai-safety openai regulation
| Source: Mastodon | Original article
OpenAI has quietly financed a new advocacy front that is pressing California lawmakers to adopt mandatory age‑verification for all artificial‑intelligence services. The group, called the Parents and Kids Safe AI Coalition, was revealed in a Gizmodo report to be wholly funded by OpenAI’s lobbying arm, despite the company’s public stance of “transparent” engagement on AI policy.
The coalition’s flagship proposal, the Parents and Kids Safe AI Act, would require any AI tool that interacts with users under 18 to confirm the user’s age through a verified identity check before granting access. Proponents argue the measure protects minors from harmful content, deep‑fakes and manipulative recommendation engines. Critics, however, warn that the technology—often based on biometric scans or third‑party data brokers—poses a serious privacy intrusion and could create a lucrative market for verification vendors.
The development matters because it signals a shift from OpenAI’s usual focus on broad, industry‑wide regulation toward a narrower, user‑level control that could set a precedent for other states and even the EU. If enacted, the law would force developers of chatbots, generative image tools and code assistants to embed costly compliance layers, potentially slowing innovation and raising product prices. At the same time, the move could give OpenAI a competitive edge by shaping standards that align with its own verification solutions.
What to watch next: the California legislature’s committee hearings, expected in the coming weeks, will test the coalition’s arguments and expose any dissent from privacy groups. Parallel bills in New York and Washington are likely to reference the California model, and industry bodies such as the Partnership on AI may launch counter‑campaigns. The outcome will reveal how far corporate‑backed advocacy can steer AI governance and whether age‑verification becomes a new regulatory norm.
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