Narayanan: blanket bans on teen AI companions are bad policy; incentivize pro-social design instead
random_walker · x · 2026-11-12
A debate on whether teens should be banned from AI companion chatbots:
- @holmesjtg argues conversations with well-aligned models can be a net positive; his education-space work suggests AI interactions can improve empathy and confidence, and even human-to-human relationships.
- Arvind Narayanan (randomwalker) responds: agreed, but that makes policy harder — a blanket ban on teen AI companions is unlikely to be a good solution. The menu of policy responses is too blunt, and there's too little thinking on incentivizing pro-social chatbot design.
The takeaway: the debate should shift from banning to designing incentives for beneficial chatbot behavior.
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