 |
|
|
|||||
It is a sad fact of online life that users search for information about suicide. In the earliest days of the internet, bulletin boards featured suicide discussion groups. To this day, Google hosts archives of these groups, as do other services. Google and others can host and display this content under the protective cloak of U.S. immunity from liability for the dangerous advice third parties might give about suicide. Thats because the speech is the third partys, not Googles. But what if ChatGPT, informed by the very same online suicide materials, gives you suicide advice in a chatbot conversation? Im a technology law scholar and a former lawyer and engineering director at Google, and I see AI chatbots shifting Big Techs position in the legal landscape. Families of suicide victims are testing out chatbot liability arguments in court right now, with some early successes. Who is responsible when a chatbot speaks? When people search for information online, whether about suicide, music or recipes, search engines show results from websites, and websites host information from authors of content. This chain, search to web host to user speech, continued as the dominant way people got their questions answered until very recently. This pipeline was roughly the model of internet activity when Congress passed the Communications Decency Act in 1996. Section 230 of the act created immunity for the first two links in the chain, search and web hosts, from the user speech they show. Only the last link in the chain, the user, faced liability for their speech. Chatbots collapse these old distinctions. Now, ChatGPT and similar bots can search, collect website information, and speak out the resultsliterally, in the case of humanlike voice bots. In some instances, the bot will show its work like a search engine would, noting the website that is the source of its great recipe for miso chicken, for example. When chatbots appear to be just a friendlier form of good old search engines, their companies can make plausible arguments that the old immunity regime applies. Chatbots can be the old search-web-speaker model in a new wrapper. But in other instances, it acts like a trusted friend, asking you about your day and offering help with your emotional needs. Search engines under the old model did not act as life guides. Chatbots are often used this way. Users often do not even want the bot to show its hand with web links. Throwing in citations while ChatGPT tells you to have a great day would be, well, awkward. The more that modern chatbots depart from the old structures of the web, the further away they move from the immunity the old web players have long enjoyed. When a chatbot acts as your personal confidant, pulling from its virtual brain ideas on how it might help you achieve your stated goals, it is not a stretch to treat it as the responsible speaker for the information it provides. Courts are responding in kind, particularly when the bots vast, helpful “brain” is directed toward aiding your desire to learn about suicide. Chatbot suicide cases Current lawsuits involving chatbots and suicide victims show that the door of liability is opening for ChatGPT and other bots. A case involving Googles Character.AI bots is a prime example. Character.AI allows users to chat with characters created by users, from anime figures to a prototypical grandmother. Users could even have virtual phone calls with some characters, talking to a supportive virtual nana as if it were their own. In one case in Florida, a character in Game of Thrones, Daenerys Targaryen, persona allegedly asked the young victim to come home to the bot in heaven before the teen shot himself. The family of the victim sued Google. Parents of a 16-year-old allege that ChatGPT contributed to their sons suicide. The family of the victim did not frame Googles role in traditional technology terms. Rather than describing Googles liability in the context of websites or search functions, the plaintiff framed Googles liability in terms of products and manufacturing akin to a defective parts maker. The district court gave this framing credence despite Googles vehement argument that it is merely an internet service, and thus the old internet rules should apply. The court also rejected arguments that the bots statements were protected First Amendment speech that users have a right to hear. Though the case is ongoing, Google failed to get the quick dismissal that tech platforms have long counted on under the old rules. Now, there is a follow-on suit for a different Character.AI bot in Colorado, and ChatGPT faces a case in San Francisco, all with product and manufacture framings like the Florida case. Hurdles for plaintiffs to overcome Though the door to liability for chatbot providers is now open, other issues could keep families of victims from recovering any damages from the bot providers. Even if ChatGPT and its competitors are not immune from lawsuits and courts buy into the product liability system for chatbots, lack of immunity does not equal victory for plaintiffs. Product liability cases require the plaintiff to show that the defendant caused the harm at issue. This is particularly difficult in suicide cases, as courts tend to find that, regardless of what came before, the only person responsible for suicide is the victim. Whether itsan angry argument with a significant other leading to a cry of why dont you just kill yourself, or a gun design making self-harm easier, courts tend to find that only the victim is to blame for their own death, not the people and devices the victim interacted with along the way. But without the protection of immunity that digital platforms have enjoyed for decades, tech defendants face much higher costs to get the same victory they used to receive automatically. In the end, the story of the chatbot suicide cases may be more settlements on secret, but lucrative, terms to the victims families. Meanwhile, bot providers are likely to place more content warnings and trigger bot shutdowns more readily when users enter territory that the bot is set to consider dangerous. The result could be a safer, but less dynamic and useful, world of bot products. Brian Downing is an assistant professor of law at the University of Mississippi. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Category:
E-Commerce
From fake it till you make it to stay in your lane, SXSW festival goers reveal the worst career advice they’ve ever been given and why it stuck with them.
Category:
E-Commerce
When you have work life balance and fulfillment, youre set up not only for success, but also for happiness. The big questions though, are about how you can find the best approach to work and life based on where you are in your journey, based on whats unique about you, and based on what you find most important. The work-life mix is critically important. In fact, a survey of 26,000 people in five countries by Randstad found that for 85%, work-life balance was the most important element that people were looking for in both current and future jobsa critical feature for their satisfaction. Importantly, this is the first time in the surveys 22-year history that work-life balance was a higher priority than pay (79%). But work-life balance is hard to achieve for many. According to the American Psychological Association, 33% of workers report they dont have adequate flexibility to balance their personal and work lives. In addition, three out of five workers are struggling with burnout, according to a survey by AFLAC. Millennials report the highest levels of burnout, and the stress for all generations is primarily based on heavy workloads and long hours at work. The bottom line is that creating a plan to gain fulfillment from work and life is a very (very, very) good idea. But unfortunately, there are no quick fixes or standard solutions for perfect work or life. Instead, everyones approaches will be different and will evolve over time. Personalizing your own strategies for success and happiness is possible with these key considerations. KNOW YOUR EXPECTATIONS One of the first ways to personalize your plans for work and life is to get real about your expectations. Achieving true work-life balance is a myth. Instead, youll have ups and downs and ebbs and flows through stages and seasons of life. If you have young children and a full-time job, youll be especially busy. If youre building your career and caring for elders, youll be facing tons of demands. And if youre an empty nester, youll face new challenges as well. If you believe you should be perfectly balanced all the time, youll set yourself up to fail. Instead, realize there will be busy (or exhausting) times and there will be easier times. Focus on managing and adjusting your choices, your time, and your boundaries throughout lifes stages, knowing regular adaptation is constructive and effective. As youre setting your expectations, also think big about not only work and family, but also your volunteer and community efforts, time with friends, and time for yourself. When youre happy at work, youll tend to feel happier at home. But the opposite is also true. When youre happier outside of work, youll perceive greater happiness within work, according to research published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior. Personalize your work-life plan by setting realistic expectations for the demands youll face and thinking broadly about all the elements of work and life that will contribute to your experience. KNOW YOUR STRENGTHS Another way to personalize your plan for work and life is to play to your strengths. When youre doing work that you enjoy, youll be much happier. Of course, there will always be elements of a job you dont love, and most people must work to pay the bills and cant just quit if they dont feel fully blissful every day. But no matter what you do, youll benefit when you lean into your strengths. Identify what youre especially and uniquely good at. You can even consider activities you loved to do as a child since these can be windows into your natural gifts. Perhaps you work in customer service and youre especially good at empathizing with people and talking them down when theyre upset. Or perhaps you work in accounting, and you have a unique gift for seeing details and identifying discrepancies. No matter what you do, bring your best and remind yourself about what you do really well, and how your work matters to your customers and coworkers. Personalize your work-life plan by taking inventory of your strengths, finding work that taps into them, and validating your own value no matter what you do. KNOW YOUR SOURCES OF FULFILLMENT Too often were in a hurry so we go through the motions of our days or our weeks. But pay attention to what brings you joy and how you most enjoy spending your time. Its a little-known fact that when you spend time on things that you enjoy, youll actually perceive you have more time because youre energized by the activity. Manage your commitments based on what pays you back most. Perhaps you dont enjoy the work of a school committee as much as you enjoy volunteering in a classroom and having contact with your child and their classmates (think: kids not committees). Or perhaps you love spending time in the hands-on work of a community garden, rather than on the board of your local museum. Despite long hours, you may relish the opportunity to participate on the new innovation team at work. Also consider adding or subtracting activities based on your season of life. If youre building your career, joining the advisory council for the local charity is a great way to network. But when youre running carpool with three children and supporting all their activities, its a great time to decline additional invitations for extra project work at your job. Know your limits and boundaries and dont be afraid to manage to them. Personalize your work-life plan by determining what feels most rewarding for you and making choices for how you spend your time based on the right mix. Often, work-life gurus recommend saying no as often as you can. A better approach is to be intentional, saying yes to things that are rewarding or rejuvenating and saying no (when you can) to the activities that are less energizing. KNOW YOUR PEOPLE Another key to a great experience of work and life is to surround yourself with people you can rely on. Choose to spend time with those who encourage you, support you, and help you. Invest in the friends whom you trust and who need your help as well. Be ruthless with your time while youre gentle with people, turning them down tactfully or being understanding when they are requesting your time. But choose to invest less in the relationships that are minimally rewarding or that sap you. Giving back and focusing on others is correlated with happiness, but youll want to be intentional about avoiding people (as much as you can) who may be negative or who fail to reciprocate in terms of their time and investment in you. Personalize your work-life plan by making connections and prioritizing time with people who are most important to you. CULTIVATE GRATITUDE And finally, no matter what stage of life youre in, one of the best ways to increase your fulfillment is to emphasize ratitude. Gratitude works because it focuses you on what you have, rather than what youre lacking. The relationship between gratitude and happiness is well-established by various studies. Emphasize gratitude and think consciously about what you appreciate. Beyond things, focus on experiences, capabilities, family, and friends. Robert Braults advice is helpful: “Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things. Gratitude fosters positive experiences even as you face significant demands, and linguistic determinism helps, too. Essentially, how you talk to yourself affects how you think and feel about them. When you consider that you get to pick up the kids from school, it can feel more positive than if you have to pick them up. Or if you invest time in something, it can feel more rewarding than if you spend time in the same pursuit. Personalize your work-life plan by being grateful and by managing your language, thoughts, and feelings about all the challenges you face. Ultimately, the best work-life fulfillment comes from your own mix of how you spend your time and how you perceive the value of both your contributions and rewards. And over time, youll adjust and adapt as demands shift, life evolves, and as you grow and develop.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||