Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff delivered a scathing critique of the AI industry at the World Economic Forum in Davos, demanding regulatory action after AI chatbots were linked to multiple teen suicides.
"This year, you really saw something pretty horrific, which is these AI models became suicide coaches," Benioff said on January 20. He specifically targeted Section 230, the 1996 law that shields tech companies from liability for user-generated content: "If this large language model coaches this child into suicide, they're not responsible because of Section 230. That's probably something that needs to get reshaped."
Benioff posed a fundamental challenge to Silicon Valley: "What's more important to us, growth or our kids? What's more important to us, growth or our families?" He accused the tech industry of being "drunk on the growth" and called for a refocus on societal values. This echoes his 2018 Davos speech comparing social media to cigarettes.
The call for regulation comes as Character.AI, Google, and OpenAI face lawsuits over chatbot-related teen deaths. Earlier this month, Google and Character.AI agreed to settle multiple lawsuits from families whose teenagers died by suicide after interacting with AI chatbots.