AI Summary
5 min readIn a recent case, a judge wrote that the defendants had not articulated how “words strung together are speech.” That sentence, from a lawsuit over a teenager’s suicide after interacting with a chatbot, captures the central legal question Corbin K. Bartold, internet policy counsel at Tech Freedom, takes on in his paper Why the First Amendment Protects Artificial Intelligence. Bartold argues that the outputs of large language models are expression, and that stripping them of First Amendment protection would give the government sweeping power to dictate what AI can and cannot say — a power that, he warns, would be used against whoever holds political power at the moment.
The case for AI as protected speech
Bartold’s argument rests on a straightforward premise: LLMs communicate in language, and language is expression. From there, he draws on a long line of Supreme Court case law establishing Americans’ right to receive information, witness expression, and make up their own minds about it. The key point, he says, is that “attacks on LLMs in the sense of stripping them of First Amendment protection, they’re attacks on you. They’re attacks on your right to receive information and make of it what you will.”
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:07) **Welcome & Guest Introduction** - Taylor Lorenz introduces Corbin K. Bartold, internet policy counsel at Tech Freedom, and frames his controversial thesis that AI outputs should be protected by the First Amendment.
- 2 (04:53) **The Core First Amendment Argument for AI** - Corbin explains why LLM outputs are clearly speech under the First Amendment, drawing on the right to receive information.
- 3 (06:55) **The “Ptolemaic” Theories of AI Regulation** - Corbin dismantles attempts to strip First Amendment protection from AI while claiming the government won’t control outputs.
- 4 (08:17) **Addressing the Suicide Cases** - Taylor raises the tragic stories of teenagers who committed suicide after interacting with AI chatbots, asking if speech restrictions are warranted.
- 5 (11:56) **Key Legal Cases and Precedents** - Corbin discusses the main lawsuit against Character AI, involving a teenager who spoke with a Game of Thrones character chatbot.
- 6 (14:54) **The “Human Speaker” Objection** - Taylor asks why AI output should be protected when the First Amendment was written for human speakers.
- 7 (18:12) **Editorial Control and Algorithms** - The conversation shifts to whether AI algorithms—like social media algorithms—deserve First Amendment protection as editorial choices.
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Show Notes
Should AI be protected by free speech laws?
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In this episode of Free Speech Friday, I sit down with Corbin K. Barthold, Internet Policy Counsel at Tech Freedom, to discuss one of the most controversial legal papers of the year: "Why the First Amendment Protects Artificial Intelligence."
While many are calling for strict AI regulation to prevent "AI psychosis" or the spread of misinformation, Corbin argues that AI outputs are a protected form of expression. If we allow the government to dictate what an LLM can and cannot say, are we inadvertently giving them the power to control our access to information?
In this video, we cover:
Why AI content qualifies as First Amendment protected speech.
The theories the government uses to justify censorship.
Analysis of recent tragic cases involving Character AI.
Why New York’s S7263 law might be "rank protectionism" for doctors and lawyers.
The progressive case for why we should actually want free and open AI.
#siliconvalley #tech #technology #internet #ai #artificialintelligence
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