The world has witnessed breathtaking advances in generative artificial intelligence (AI), with ChatGPT being one of the best known examples. To prevent harm and misuse of the technology, politicians are now considering regulating AI. Yet they face an overlooked barrier: AI may have a right to free speech.
Under international law, humans possess an inviolable right to freedom of thought. As part of this, governments have a duty to create an environment where people can think freely.
As we’ve seen with ChatGPT, AI can support our thinking, providing information and offering answers to our questions. This has led some to argue that our right to think freely may require giving AI a right to speak freely.
Free thought needs free speech
Recent articles, papers and books from the US have made the case that AI has a right to free speech.
Corporations, like AI systems, are not people. Yet the US supreme court has ruled that government should not suppress corporations’ political speech. This is because the first amendment protects Americans’ freedom to think for themselves.
Free thought, says the US supreme court, requires us to hear from “diverse and antagonistic sources”. The US government telling people where to get their information would be an unlawful use of “censorship to control thought”. So corporations’ free speech is believed to create an environment where individuals are free to think.
“It could control our attention, discourage pause for reflection, pervert our reasoning, and intimidate us into silence”
The same principle could extend to AI. The US supreme court says that protecting speech “does not depend upon the identity of its source”. Instead, the key criterion for protecting speech is that the speaker, whether an individual, corporation or AI, contributes to the marketplace of ideas.
