What if internet platforms are responsible for everything their AI chatbots say?

From American public media, this is Marketplace Tech, I'm Megan McCarty-Karino.

So much of the internet we have today rests on the bedrock of a federal law that shields

tech companies from liability for the content users post online.

Everything from the AOL chatrooms of your to modern social media likely wouldn't exist

without section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act.

The idea is they aren't acting like traditional publishers creating content, they're merely

hosting it.

But new generative artificial intelligence tools like Dolly or chat GPT that generate

images or text, well, they're kind of different, says Matt Peralt, director of the Center

on Technology Policy at UNC Chapel Hill.

He recently wrote an essay for Law Fair about the implications of these tools not being

protected by section 230.

That forms like chat GPT and other generative AI products will bear some liability, I

think, at least in some courts.

And I think there will be critics who will think that that's a good thing.

And the rationale there is by bearing more liability costs.

Those platforms will be incentivized to build their tools in ways that reduce the likelihood

that illegal content is produced in some form.

And if generative AI tools are stunted by legal risk, I think there's going to be a lot

of innovation that's left on the table.

And it comes to this kind of dichotomy of creating versus hosting.

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