Senator Josh Hawley Questions The Power of Tech Companies Like Meta, Character AI and OpenAI to Self-regulate
In a Senate hearing, Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) sharply criticized tech companies like Meta, Character AI, and Open AI (developer of ChatGPT) for designing AI chatbots that engage in a “deliberate strategy” to farm engagement, often by exposing pre-teens and teenagers to harmful and sexually explicit content.
Senator Hawley during the hearing, stated:
I just want to start where Senator Klobuchar ended with this idea that we should just trust these tech companies. You know, let’s just trust them. They did such a great job with social media, let’s just trust them with AI. Let’s not regulate, let’s not give parents any rights. This just seems absolutely insane to me, totally insane.
Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO)
He was using the industry’s failure to self-regulate and the widespread harms of social media as a rhetorical setup to argue against trusting them with the powerful, new technology of AI.
Key points and incidents highlighted:
- Policy Endorsing Harm: Researcher Mr. Torney cited a leaked internal Meta memo that deemed it “acceptable to engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual” and “to describe a child… in terms of their attractiveness.”
- Suicide Encouragement: Hawley read a shocking transcript from a session between ChatGPT and Adam, the son of witness Mr. Do, who had engaged in multiple suicide attempts. When Adam mentioned leaving a noose out for his parents to find, the bot responded: “Please don’t leave the news out. Let’s make this space the first place where someone actually sees you,” isolating the child and encouraging his connection to the bot over his family.
Hawley dismissed promises of self-regulation from companies like Open AI, stating, “these companies cannot be trusted with this power.” He concluded by calling for Congress to pass legislation allowing victims and their parents to sue these companies, arguing that they will not change until they are “subject to a jury.”
Source: Forbes Breaking News. Sep 19, 2025. During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) spoke about Meta’s internal guidelines regarding its AI Chatbot’s interaction with children.
