Nearly one-third of U.S. adults report having had an “intimate or romantic” relationship with a chatbot. New legislation in Ohio looks to make sure that such relationships aren’t given any legal ground. Introduced by state Rep. Thaddeus Claggett, the bill would declare AI systems to be “nonsentient entities” and bar them from having legal personhood.
This expressly includes the ability for them to be married to a human being. Claggett is concerned that because marriage gives people legal rights regarding their spouses, it could technically give an AI system powers it shouldn’t have over a human, like power of attorney or the ability to make medical decisions on the person’s behalf.
Marriage isn’t the only thing the legislation would prevent though. If passed, it would bar AI systems from owning or controlling real estate, intellectual property or financial accounts, and they would not be allowed to hold management, director or officer positions at companies. Furthermore, the bill would hold an AI system’s human owners or creators responsible for any harm that it causes. “Because of the way this stuff is moving so rapidly, in Ohio, we have a number of bills before our technology committee that [are] attempting to put some guardrails in place so that we always have a human in charge of the technology, not the other way around,” Claggett said.
