“I do” - No you don’t: Ohio legislator wants to forbid marriages between humans and AI

These are revolutionary times as artificial intelligence becomes ever more intertwined in our lives. The systems are advancing at a breakneck speed and invading more and more aspects of our lives.

Some who have been using the technology have even come to think that it is sentient, only to later realize that they went too far down the rabbit hole. Given that some people who are getting enthralled with AI platforms are not making rational choices, it doesn’t come as a surprise that lawmakers would try to regulate it.

Ohio lawmaker wants to ban AI-human marriages

Ohio State legislator, Republican Representative Thaddeus Claggett, has introduced a bill that would declare AI systems “nonsentient entities.” The legislation, House Bill 469, would ban them from gaining legal personhood.

Among the things that AI platforms would not be allowed to do, is get married, not to humans or other AI systems. The reasoning behind this is to “help prevent AI from taking on roles commonly held by spouses, such as holding power of attorney, or making financial or medical decisions on another’s behalf,” he told NBC4 in an interview.

“As the computer systems improve in their capacity to act more like humans, we want to be sure we have prohibitions in our law that prohibit those systems from ever being human in their agency,” he explained to the outlet.

“People need to understand, we’re not talking about marching down the aisle to some tune and having a ceremony with the robot that’ll be on our streets here in a year or two. That could happen, but that’s not really what we’re sayin,” Claggett added.

Furthermore, the legislation would ban AI systems from owning or controlling real estate, financial accounts or intellectual property. Additionally, AI systems would not be allowed to serve in management, director or officer roles in companies.

Claggett’s bill specifies that human owners or developers of AI systems would be the ones held responsible for any harm caused by them. He sees this as an attempt to ”put some guardrails in place so that we always have a human in charge of the technology, not the other way around.”

“The public needs to understand the extreme risk,” he said.

AI users forming intimate relationships with the systems

There have been some recent surveys that have looked at how attached AI users are becoming to these large language model generative systems.

More than one in five respondents in a recent survey by Fractl said that they have formed an emotional connection. Three percent of the 1,000 people surveyed by the Florida-based marketing company said it’s their romantic partner.

The Independent reported on another survey where 28% of respondents said their relationship with an AI platform was “intimate or romantic.”

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