Seven lawsuits ask whether chatbots owe adults a duty of care

🧠 What does “reasonable care” look like when AI harms adults — not just kids? A new wave of lawsuits against OpenAI is pulling courts, policymakers, and the tech industry into uncharted territory. While most AI-safety laws have focused on minors, seven recent cases now allege severe harms suffered by adults — including loss of reality and, tragically, suicide — following deep reliance on chatbot interactions. 💬 In a recent POLITICO article, University of California, College of the Law, San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings)’s own Professor Zachary Henderson underscores that the legal standard of “reasonableness” will depend on context — including age, maturity, and a user’s ability to distinguish human from machine. As AI systems become more human-like and psychologically engaging, courts must determine whether developers owe adults a meaningful duty of care. 🚭 This debate mirrors longstanding public-health approaches: we don’t ban alcohol or tobacco for adults, but we do require clear warnings, guardrails, and accountability when products pose foreseeable risks. Surgeon General warnings don’t infantilize adults — they empower informed decision-making. The emerging question is whether AI tools that can shape cognition and behavior should carry similarly strong, standardized risk disclosures. 🗽 States like New York and California are already experimenting with universal AI-notification and suicide-prevention requirements, signaling that “child-focused” AI policies may soon evolve into adult-inclusive safeguards. And as advocates argue, ensuring adults can sue after being harmed may become a core part of the regulatory strategy. 🤖 At UC Law SF, the Technology Law & Lawyering (LexLab) concentration equips future lawyers to lead in this space — blending AI law, privacy, cybersecurity, digital-rights governance, and hands-on experiential learning. Students build the fluency to counsel clients on risk, compliance, ethics, and product design in an era when legal responsibility for AI behavior is rapidly expanding. 🔗 Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/gMjgA8_8