Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said Tuesday that “there has to be some regulation” of artificial intelligence, pointing to several documented cases of suicide linked to the technology.
“This year, you really saw something pretty horrific, which is these AI models became suicide coaches,” Benioff told CNBC’s Sarah Eisen Tuesday at the World Economic Forum’s flagship conference in Davos, Switzerland.
Benioff’s call for regulation echoed a similar call he made about social media years ago at Davos.
In 2018, Benioff said social media should be treated like a health issue, and said the platforms should be regulated like cigarettes, “They’re addictive, they’re not good for you.”
“Bad things were happening all over the world because social media was fully unregulated,” he said Tuesday, “and now you’re kind of seeing that play out again with artificial intelligence.”
If you are having suicidal thoughts or are in distress, contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for support and assistance from a trained counselor.
