Regional Industry & News

MINOT — The North Dakota superintendent of public instruction was among a few speakers at the Artificial Intelligence and Data Center Committee meeting Thursday, Aug. 13, to emphasize the need to prioritize child safety and education.

Levi Bachmeier said it's important to not take regulation too far, preventing students from accessing technology altogether. At the same time, he feels a lot was learned with the harm caused by child social media use, and putting protections in place for children is one of the richest areas for AI policymaking.

"We have to ensure that safety is our first priority," Bachmeier said.

He feels it's necessary to look at AI's potential teaching abilities with skepticism, and ensure students receive training before they are allowed to utilize AI in a classroom setting.

Bachmeier's main concern, though, was another common use of AI.

"If I had to pick a villain, it would be companion chatbots," he said.

Bachmeier recommended regulations be put in place that require chatbot companion companies to bear the same mandated reporter burdens as educators.

"If you’re going to pretend to be a person, you need to follow the same expectations," he said.

Bachmeier feels prohibiting child use of chatbots would be more appropriate but, if not, safeguards should be put in place to prevent addictive or manipulative engagement. If a child brings up a concerning subject to AI, the chatbot should advise them to speak to a human about it, he said. Asked by the committee who would monitor compliance with these regulations, Bachmeier said part of that would be through educator and parent observation.

Rep. Todd Porter, R-Mandan, asked if Bachmeier and another presenter could work on language for an actual bill to be brought to the Legislature, showing what's missing with child safety and AI.

"We’re going to run out of time really fast," Porter said.

Anthony Aguirre, another presenter and president/CEO of the Future of Life Institute, said he has a child protection bill written, and a key factor to consider will be pre-deployment testing, which is standard in most industries.

Aguirre also said creating liability laws would set a strong legal precedent.

Michael Marinaccio, another presenter and executive director of the Center for Responsible Technology, said it would be dangerous to allow children to use AI that does not challenge them, or allow them to experience the friction they naturally would through human interaction. He feels frequent communication with a chatbot that's designed to agree with its user can lead to children growing up unfamiliar with silence, curiosity, wonder, boredom, discernment or peace.

"There’s not going to be a grandiose bill that fixes all the problems," Marinaccio said.

However, "Big Tech" will experiment on North Dakota children if state lawmakers don't act, he said. Marinaccio recommended banning student-facing chatbots from classrooms; teaching students about the risks of AI and technology ethics; and considering bringing back in-classroom, paper-and-pencil writing.

He also recommended incentives for screen-free schools, and putting safeguards in place to make it more difficult for large corporations to be directly involved with children through data relationships or contractual business.

Sen. Janne Myrdal, R-Edinburg, said the Legislature last year struggled to pass an effective age verification law. Marinaccio said children have a right to be protected, and recommended lawmakers focus on bills with "strong teeth" as to how they would actually verify the age of an AI chatbot user.

Minot State University Professors Daren Erisman, assistant professor of computer science, and Nigel George, physics professor, spoke about teaching AI to college students.

Erisman said AI has to be taught in some way, but should be dosed correctly based on someone's age. Students need to be taught the importance of learning hard — and even harmful — things, instead of just going for the soft, quick answers, he added.

Not teaching students about it doesn't mean they won't be exposed to it. George recommended having students teach AI, rather than use it to teach them.

Also during the Thursday, Aug. 13, meeting:

- North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation Special Agent Cassidy Halseth spoke about the use of AI to generate child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and the impact these crimes have on children's lives.

- Retired Gen. Tom Bussiere, former commander of the U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command, gave a presentation about the national security implications of AI and data centers. Committee members asked him if North Dakota could be the hub for military data centers and, if so, how that conversation would start. He recommended working with the state's congressional delegation.

- The committee heard public comments from four people. Ag Commissioner Doug Goehring asked for an infrastructure plan and recommended that high-producing farmland not be used for data centers. He also stressed the belief that only U.S. companies should be able to build data centers here.

- Nick Phillips, executive vice president of public affairs and real estate acquisition of Applied Digital, said he has learned a lot about land within the last five years of spending time in North Dakota. He said he is interested in hearing from people and has spoken with communities that want data centers about how to prepare the land and infrastructure.

- Greg Kasowski, executive director of the Children's Advocacy Center, spoke about how he feels chatbots are normalizing grooming behavior and have contributed to youth suicides. He also noted that children who have experienced abuse are more vulnerable to using chatbots for companionship.

- Chris Renner, a member of the planning and zoning committees in Beulah and Mercer County, spoke about his observations at local meetings. He feels people are being fed misinformation, and those who support AI data centers don't feel comfortable speaking up, so those who loudly oppose data centers carry the conversation.

- Committee members said the next meeting, which will most likely take place on Sept. 1, will focus on physical infrastructure and the impacts of data centers.