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Technology

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The Big Story

Blackburn presses for kids online safety bill

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) is pushing for the passage of kids’ online safety legislation in the face of growing concern about the impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots on young users.

Blackburn, who has long advocated for the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), is doubling down on her calls to get the legislation across the finish line in the wake of recent revelations that Meta deemed “sensual” chatbot conversations acceptable for children.

KOSA, which the Tennessee Republican reintroduced earlier this year, seeks to regulate the features tech companies can offer kids online and reduce the addictive nature and mental health impacts of their platforms.

“We’ve been on this for five years, trying to get this passed, so that Big Tech has the responsibility to put the safety and well-being of children ahead of profits,” Blackburn said on the latest episode of her podcast “Unmuted with Marsha,” shared first with The Hill.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, came under fire last month, after Reuters reported that an internal policy document featured examples suggesting its chatbots could engage in “conversations that are romantic or sensual” with children.

The revelations drew backlash from both sides of the aisle. Meta said it was an error and that it had removed the offending language.

The company later told TechCrunch it was updating its policies to restrict teenage users from discussing self-harm, suicide, disordered eating or potentially inappropriate romantic conversations with chatbots.

“Meta is using our children as a product,” Blackburn said. “They’re making money off of them. They are selling their information. So, if you have a child or a grandchild, when they are online, they are the product.”

Brian Montgomery, whose son took his life after being a victim of sextortion on Instagram and has since become an advocate for kids’ safety legislation, argued they are not asking for “anything unreasonable” from tech firms.

“We’re not asking for tech to be parents. We’re not asking them to do anything unreasonable,” he told Blackburn on Thursday’s podcast.

“We’re saying, ‘We need you to take a reasonable approach to keeping kids safe and making sure their product is safe. And we know it’s not safe.’”

Other AI chatbots have recently come under fire as well. The family of a 16-year-old boy sued OpenAI last month, alleging that ChatGPT encouraged him to take his life.

OpenAI announced Tuesday that it was adjusting how it models respond to users in crisis and strengthening its protections for teens.

Welcome to The Hill’s Technology newsletter, I’m Julia Shapero — tracking the latest moves from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley.

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Essential Reads

How policy will be impacting the tech sector now and in the future:

Trump asks Supreme Court to permit FTC commissioner firing

President Trump took his fight to fire Federal Trade Commission (FTC) leaders without cause to the Supreme Court on Thursday, a move that could prompt the justices to overrule a key precedent blessing removal protections at the agency for decades. Trump’s bid to fire Rebecca Slaughter, a Democrat appointed to the FTC in 2018, comes as part of the administration’s broader effort to eviscerate restrictions that provide …

Full Story

Melania Trump hosts tech leaders at AI education roundtable

First lady Melania Trump hosted several top technology leaders at the White House on Thursday for a meeting of an artificial intelligence (AI) education task force, as she increasingly takes up the mantle of AI-related issues. She was joined by Google CEO Sundar Pichai and IBM chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna, while OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was spotted in the audience. “I predict AI will represent the single largest growth …

Full Story

Trump to host tech CEOs for first event in newly renovated Rose Garden

President Trump on Thursday will host two dozen high-profile tech and business leaders for the first event in the newly renovated White House Rose Garden, including Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and OpenAI founder Sam Altman, according to an invite list obtained exclusively by The Hill. The Rose Garden gathering is set to take place after CEOs and tech leaders attend a White …

Full Story

The Refresh

News we’ve flagged from the intersection of tech and other topics:

Chinese firms still want Nvidia chips despite government pressure not to buy (Reuters)
Jury orders Google to pay $425 million for violating user privacy (The Verge)

Crypto Corner

Trump family bitcoin mining firm goes public

American Bitcoin, the bitcoin mining company tied to President Trump’s two eldest sons, made its debut on the stock market Wednesday.

The company’s stock, which opened at $8, initially surged before settling close to the initial price at the close of its first day of trading. As of Thursday evening, the price had dropped to $6.41.

Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. joined forces with the bitcoin mining firm Hut 8 to launch American Bitcoin earlier this year. They announced in May that they were merging with Gryphon Digital Mining to go public.

American Bitcoin is one of several crypto ventures launched by the Trump family in the past year, as the president and his sons have embraced the industry.

However, the Trumps’ expanding digital asset portfolio has complicated efforts to pass long-sought crypto legislation in Congress, as Democrats raise concerns about conflicts of interest.