Governor Josh Shapiro and Attorney General Dave Sunday held a roundtable discussion with legislators, educators, experts, students, and parents to share recent steps the Commonwealth has taken to protect Pennsylvanians from predatory artificial intelligence (AI) practices while ensuring they have the tools needed to safely and responsibly use the latest technology.
“As artificial intelligence advances, we must recognize that AI brings new risks to Pennsylvanians – and we cannot sit back as bad actors exploit our kids, mislead seniors, or impersonate licensed professionals,” said Governor Shapiro.
The Shapiro Administration has collaboration with the Attorney General’s office to keep Pennsylvanians safe, while evolving with the demands of technology and ultimately ensuring the Commonwealth remains a national leader on responsible AI adoption.
“While we all have our lanes of duty, as specified by statute, those lanes often overlap and intertwine, and my office will continue to embrace an all-hands-on-deck approach to defeating harmful tech,” said Pennsylvania Attorney General Sunday. “Protecting children and their families from fast-evolving technology is not the duty of any one elected official — rather, it is a mission we all share and zealously pursue every day.”
Throughout their conversation, local parents also shared firsthand experiences after five ninth-grade girls from Radnor High School were victimized by predatory AI — highlighting the need for responsible AI use education in the protection of young Pennsylvanians.
“Unfortunately, my daughter was a victim of this particular crime, and we saw institutions, including the police and the school, who did not know how to respond,” said Audrey Greenberg, a Radnor High School parent. “Our kids spend 75 percent of their waking hours in school — that’s where their life is — so expanding education to schools so that they have a protocol to follow when something like this happens would be so important.”
The roundtable was held at the West Chester Community Center, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting underserved Pennsylvanians in the West Chester area with educational and recreational programs including a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) focused summer camp, summer basketball league, and their 2 Fish Community Cafe program that mentors and trains local youth in culinary arts and the hospitality industry.
A multi-agency AI Literacy Toolkit provides new resources for Pennsylvanians, including information to help parents talk to their kids about AI companion bots, strategies to help kids stay safe online, guidance for using AI in the classroom, warnings about potential financial and banking scams, and a link to the Department of State’s new AI companion bot complaint form.
Since its February launch, the AI Literacy Toolkit has been accessed nearly 2,000 times.
