This week, Senators Marsha Blackburn and Richard Blumenthal announced that OpenAI, one of the country’s leading AI firms, was endorsing the Senate version of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). This announcement came ahead of a hearing they held later in the week to review recent decisions in cases against social media companies in New Mexico and California. As I explained when discussing these cases on the Schwab Network, if the underlying legal theories in the cases were to prevail, it would cause a massive disruption to the overarching online ecosystem, an outcome whose ripple effects would assuredly leave billions of consumers around the globe worse off.
What does the OpenAI endorsement of KOSA mean for the company?
For OpenAI, it is a low-cost maneuver to build some political capital with politicians who have been working on this legislation. And for a large AI company that will be impacted should KOSA pass and become law, it also presents an opportunity to build a regulatory moat to protect itself. As a very large company operating in that ecosystem, OpenAI has numerous lawyers to help navigate the regulatory maze, a luxury that small competitors and startups can not as easily afford.
Is KOSA now more likely to pass?
Little has changed in the grand scheme of things. The Senate version of KOSA passed overwhelmingly in the last Congress, and it’s likely a similar outcome will occur again this Congress. However, its prospects in the House remain murky as ever, as House Leadership has correctly and consistently pointed out its concerns about the duty of care and the constitutional issues the Senate version of KOSA would raise regarding speech.
At the end of the day, as we at the Consumer Choice Center have repeatedly said, protecting kids online is a noble goal, but legislative proposals like KOSA are not the answer. Existing technologies, coupled with parental supervision and user education, will help protect children online without jeopardizing others’ privacy. Focusing on resourcing and supporting law enforcement in carrying out its mission to tackle online crimes, as well as consumer education efforts at both the federal and state levels, would better benefit all internet users.