What do you get when you combine a loneliness epidemic with the advent of A.I.? According to Eric Schmidt, former Google (GOOGL) CEO and an avid investor in the A.I. space, the answer is a rise in virtual friends—or even girlfriends—amongst young people. Such over-reliance on digital connection is “a good example of an unexpected problem of existing technology,” said Schmidt earlier this week during an interview on The Prof G Show podcast hosted by Scott Galloway.
Schmidt is optimistic about A.I.’s applications across areas like drug discovery, climate change solutions and bolstered education. “All of these things are coming, and those are fantastic,” he said. But he cautioned about the technology’s concerning uses in cases like biological harm, cyber attacks and its potential to shape the actions of impressionable young people.
Schmidt is particularly concerned about A.I.’s impact on young men, who are no longer entering higher education at the same rates as young women and have therefore seen traditional “paths to success” made more difficult. “They turn to the online world for enjoyment and sustenance, but also because of the social media algorithms they find like-minded people who ultimately radicalize them,” said Schmidt. Nearly half of young men describe their online lives as more engaging and rewarding than their offline ones, according to a 2023 study from the nonprofit Equimundo.
Young people could form attachments to A.I. as friends or romantic partners—for example, in the form of a digital girlfriend who is “perfect visually, perfect emotionally,” Schmidt said. This type of connection could turn into an obsession for vulnerable youth “who are not fully formed,” said Schmidt. It’s either up to A.I. developers to ensure these technologies are safe and don’t pose risks to “highly suggestible” young people or up to regulators to limit such applications with guardrails, he said.
How can A.I.’s impact on youth be regulated?
The U.S. has numerous rules surrounding “the age of maturity” for youth, “yet you put a 12- or 13-year-old in front of these things and they have access to every evil—as well as every good in the world—and they’re not ready to take it,” said Schmidt, adding that he is especially concerned about A.I.’s effect “on the human psyche.”
Regulation is needed to determine what ages are appropriate for unlimited A.I. access, according to Schmidt, who noted that laws like Section 230, which shields social platforms from lawsuits over content posted by third-party users, must be amended to allow for “liability in the worst possible cases.”
Incidents connected to A.I. relationships amid the youth have already taken place. In February, a 14-year-old boy committed suicide shortly after communicating with an A.I. companion from chatbot service Character.AI. “I think all of us would agree that a suicide of a teenager is not okay, and so regulating the industry so it doesn’t generate that message strikes me as a no-brainer,” said Schmidt.
The timeline of when strengthened regulation will come into play, however, is up in the air. Given President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to repeal the Biden administration’s executive order on A.I. in favor of less stringent A.I. safeguards, a decrease in A.I. regulation over the next few years is “a fair prediction,” said the former Google CEO.
Schmidt has significant financial stakes in the emerging technology. His venture capital firm, Innovation Endeavors, has poured millions into high-flying A.I. startup startups, including Stability AI, Inflection AI and Mistral AI.