Ofcom warns tech firms after chatbots imitate Brianna Ghey and Molly Russell

Ofcom has warned tech firms that content from chatbots impersonating real and fictional people could fall foul of the UK's new digital laws. The communications regulator issued the guidance after it emerged that users on the Character.AI platform had created avatars mimicking the deceased British teenagers Brianna Ghey and Molly Russell. Under pressure from digital safety campaigners to clarify the situation, Ofcom underlined that content created by user-made chatbots would come under the scope of the Online Safety Act. Without naming the US-based artificial intelligence firm Character.AI, Ofcom said a site or app that allowed users to create their own chatbots for other people to interact with would be covered by the act. "This includes services that provide tools for users to create chatbots that mimic the personas of real and fictional people, which can be submitted to a chatbot library for others to interact with," said Ofcom. In an open letter, Ofcom also said any user-to-user site or app – such as a social media platform or messaging app – that enabled people to share content generated by a chatbot on that site with others would also be in scope.