UPDATE 1 — Ex — Google safety chief warns AI could harm children more than social media did

Tom Siegel joined Common Sense Media to lead its Youth AI Safety Institute Aims to create independent youth AI risk standards akin to car crash tests Risks from AI include suicide, psychosis and reduced critical thinking, he said (Adds additional comment from Google to Sept 22 story in paragraph 16) By Kenrick Cai SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 23 (Reuters) — The founder of the trust and safety team at Alphabet’s Google this week called for a slowdown in AI development, warning that the tech industry was repeating the same mistakes from the social media era, potentially causing even greater harm to children. Social media companies are paying huge sums and facing thousands of lawsuits over claims they harmed young users, while governments around the world are working to curb minors' access to their platforms. Reuters last year exclusively reported on an internal Meta policy document that stated its chatbots could “engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual,” resulting in a congressional probe. Even so, regulation has yet to catch up with AI's breakneck pace of development. “We find ourselves in a really terrible situation in terms of what AI is doing to kids,” Tom Siegel, the