On the heels of a California lawsuit, alleging ChatGPT encouraged a 16-year-old to take his own life, policymakers, educators, and legal professionals in our state are urgently debating how best to protect the public, especially youth, from the risks that come with AI.
AI development and usage is clearly outpacing human guardrails. It’s being used in ways its creators never intended, or in some cases, maybe never imagined. In lots of ways, it feels like lawmakers, schools, state bars, and courts are playing catch up. In my experience as an attorney interested in tech and innovation, North Carolina is smart to focus on AI literacy and fluency in schools, as evidenced by the NC Department of Public Instruction cautioning schools against relying on AI detectors. If implemented effectively, this tech can close learning gaps, help kids with disabilities and ease teacher workloads, but only if we deliberately teach both students and educators how to use it without becoming overly reliant.
For lawyers, the NC Bar’s ethics guidance has made it extremely clear: If you use AI in legal work, you own the consequences. Many attorneys don’t fully understand how these tools process data, potentially creating risks of confidentiality breaches and malpractice. As AI becomes mainstream in the legal profession, we need to foster a culture of education and accountability. Regulators in and around the NC legislature also have a big challenge in creating laws that curb abuse without becoming overly regulatory. A heavy regulatory hand might impede the very innovations that would improve the way AI interacts with users. It’s a difficult balance that we need to get right.
Attorney General Jeff Jackson has joined multistate efforts pressing tech companies on AI harms to minors, including the spread of AI-generated explicit images. In the legislature, the NC House is weighing how to make the creation of deepfakes, a dangerous and increasingly sophisticated AI application, a crime. These actions signal that North Carolina intends to be proactive rather than reactive in facing AI’s challenges.
It’s important for us all to remember that behind every regulation, lawsuit, or ethics opinion are real people. Whether it’s a teenager engaging with a chatbot, a teacher utilizing generative AI in the classroom, or an attorney filing a brief on behalf of a client, we need to ensure that we take seriously our duty to protect the public in this new era instead of letting technology write the rules for us.