Sam Altman posted a blog and tweet announcing new measures to guard against teen suicides with users of ChatGPT.
Here’s the part specifically on the new measures:
The third principle is about protecting teens. We prioritize safety ahead of privacy and freedom for teens; this is a new and powerful technology, and we believe minors need significant protection.
First, we have to separate users who are under 18 from those who aren’t (ChatGPT is intended for people 13 and up). We’re building an age-prediction system to estimate age based on how people use ChatGPT. If there is doubt, we’ll play it safe and default to the under-18 experience. In some cases or countries we may also ask for an ID; we know this is a privacy compromise for adults but believe it is a worthy tradeoff.
We will apply different rules to teens using our services. For example, ChatGPT will be trained not to do the above-mentioned flirtatious talk if asked, or engage in discussions about suicide of self-harm even in a creative writing setting.
And, if an under-18 user is having suicidal ideation, we will attempt to contact the users’ parents and if unable, will contact the authorities in case of imminent harm. We shared more today about how we’re building the age-prediction system and new parental controls to make all of this work.
We realize that these principles are in conflict and not everyone will agree with how we are resolving that conflict. These are difficult decisions, but after talking with experts, this is what we think is best and want to be transparent in our intentions.
This follows a recent suicide of a teenager whose parents have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against OpenAI in California state court.