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justaprogressive

(6,961 posts)
Fri Apr 10, 2026, 11:15 AM Friday

OpenAI Backs Bill That Would Limit Liability for AI-Enabled Mass Deaths or Financial Disasters -Wired

OpenAI is throwing its support behind an Illinois state bill that would shield AI labs from liability in cases where AI models are used to cause serious societal harms, such as death or serious injury of 100 or more people or at least $1 billion in property damage.

The effort seems to mark a shift in OpenAI’s legislative strategy. Until now, OpenAI has largely played defense, opposing bills that could have made AI labs liable for their technology’s harms. Several AI policy experts tell WIRED that SB 3444—which could set a new standard for the industry—is a more extreme measure than bills OpenAI has supported in the past.

The bill would shield frontier AI developers from liability for “critical harms” caused by their frontier models as long as they did not intentionally or recklessly cause such an incident, and have published safety, security, and transparency reports on their website. It defines a frontier model as any AI model trained using more than $100 million in computational costs, which likely could apply to America’s largest AI labs, like OpenAI, Google, xAI, Anthropic, and Meta.

“We support approaches like this because they focus on what matters most: Reducing the risk of serious harm from the most advanced AI systems while still allowing this technology to get into the hands of the people and businesses—small and big—of Illinois,” said OpenAI spokesperson Jamie Radice in an emailed statement. “They also help avoid a patchwork of state-by-state rules and move toward clearer, more consistent national standards.”

Under its definition of critical harms, the bill lists a few common areas of concern for the AI industry, such as a bad actor using AI to create a chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear weapon. If an AI model engages in conduct on its own that, if committed by a human, would constitute a criminal offense and leads to those extreme outcomes, that would also be a critical harm. If an AI model were to commit any of these actions under SB 3444, the AI lab behind the model may not be held liable, so long as it wasn’t intentional and they published their reports.


https://www.wired.com/story/openai-backs-bill-exempt-ai-firms-model-harm-lawsuits/
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OpenAI Backs Bill That Would Limit Liability for AI-Enabled Mass Deaths or Financial Disasters -Wired (Original Post) justaprogressive Friday OP
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cbabe

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Google and chatbot startup Character.AI are settling lawsuits over teen suicides
Yesterday
https://www.businessinsider.com/google-character-ai-settling-lawsuits-teen-suicides-new-york-texas-2026-1?op=1

Google and chatbot startup Character.AI are settling lawsuits over teen suicides

Shubhangi Goel
Senior Reporter, Tech
Jan 7, 2026, 9:48 PM PT

Google and Character.AI have agreed to settle lawsuits over chatbot-linked teen suicides. The cases allege that AI chatbots contributed to mental health crises among teenagers.

OpenAI and Meta have been involved in similar chatbot safety lawsuits and probes. Google and chatbot-building startup Character.AI have agreed to settle multiple lawsuits from families whose teenagers died by suicide or hurt themselves after interacting with Character.AI's chatbots.

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