Child Safety Before Profit: Utah House Bill 286

While in Utah for Sundance last week, I was invited to testify before the UT State Legislature in support of the AI Public Safety and Child Protection Transparency Act. This is an issue that Americans broadly agree on, whether we’re Republican or Democrat, Progressive, Conservative, or Centrist — it’s clear to us these big AI companies are incapable of prioritizing the public good on their own.

This is going to have a huge impact on so many fronts like jobs, the environment, or our collective ability to think and communicate. But it’s especially urgent when it comes to our kids. I met a bunch of great people there at Utah’s beautiful Capitol building, including Utah Representative Doug Fiefia, Attorney General Derek Brown, Majority Assistant Whip Mike McKell and Majority Leader Kirk Cullimore. The good news is the bill passed unanimously in the committee, and will now head on to the House and the Senate. Let’s go 👏👏👏🇺🇸 🔴

[TRANSCRIPT]

This is the Utah State Capitol, and I just testified before the state legislature about the AI Public Safety and Child Protection Transparency Act.

Hey, everybody. Good afternoon. Thanks so much for having me here.

I’m excited to be talking here about this bill. Like the representative said, my name is Joe. I work in film and TV. I also founded and ran a media tech startup. And this year, I’ll be directing a movie for Netflix that I co-wrote about AI. So in doing the research for writing this movie, I’ve had a chance to speak to a lot of the people that are at the forefront of this technology. I’ve talked to people that are inside the biggest AI companies. I’ve talked to people in government, in academia, in nonprofits, and I’ve learned a lot. For one thing, I agree with Silicon Valley that this technology is a really big deal. I believe that it could eventually impact all of our lives.

It’s very powerful already, but it’s getting more and more powerful all the time. And look, a lot of that impact is going to be great. I think that AI has potential to boost productivity and help our economy and advance science and medicine. But like with any powerful technology, it can help and it can harm. It can be both. It’s all about how we use it, right?

So the question is, what are the principles, what are the morals that are guiding the development and the design of this technology? And I’ll tell you, from what I’ve learned, To me, there’s only one principle at play right now. It’s making money. That’s it. And look, I’ve run a business. It is clear as day that is. Spin, it’s PR, it’s marketing. Because again, these companies are driven by only that one guiding principle, making money. That’s it. So this is why the AI industry needs laws. The federal government hasn’t done anything about this yet, but thank goodness the states are stepping up. I was actually here in Utah just a couple months ago for the AI Summit that Governor Cox put on along with his excellent team of very smart people that are working on this.

Utah, as far as I understand, has been a leader in the past protecting kids against these predatory tech companies. And now I think it’s time for Utah to be that leader again. So ladies and gentlemen of this committee, again, thank you for having me, and I am asking you as a tech enthusiast and as a businessman and as a fellow American and as a dad, please do the right thing and pass this bill.

Thank you.