In modern society, we prioritize the ease of bringing new products to market over regulation and testing. The only industry we prospectively regulate for safety is the pharmaceutical industry. Otherwise, regulation is retrospective and slow.<p>Look at the way we regulate harmful chemicals. After studies find that chemicals found in consumer products are harmful, manufacturers spend several years redesigning their products to avoid them. After manufacturers have voluntarily redesigned their products, the chemicals are banned. The manufacturers often replace the harmful chemicals with structurally similar chemicals that have not yet been shown to be harmful. When those similar chemicals are shown to be harmful, the cycle repeats. This is the history of phthalates, which are used to soften PVC plastic. The CPSC first considered banning one phthalate (DEHP) in children's toys the 1980s. Before that happened, all large manufacturers replaced it by another phthalate (DINP), which also turned out to be harmful. Both DEHP and DINP were finally banned by congressional action in 2008.<p>Technology is not a chemical, but anything that people will be spending significant time interacting with is likely to have <i>some</i> effect on their wellbeing, potentially small but potentially large, potentially positive but potentially negative. The type of harms these chatbots might cause are difficult to predict in advance. It could take a couple years to determine whether the current generation of chatbots are actually a net positive or negative for society. In that time, they may become too entrenched for us to do anything if they do turn out to be harmful. When Facebook first came out, I doubt many people foresaw the negative impact that it could have on teenagers. Today, many studies show that social media use has a negative impact on kids' wellbeing, but there is no going back to a pre-social media world.<p>Prospectively testing and regulating tech in the same way we regulate pharma seems insane. OTOH, we do want to make sure that world-changing tech actually changes the world for the better, and the only obvious way to do this is through <i>some kind</i> of regulation. Although regulation will undoubtedly slow growth, many of us would be happy to sacrifice some growth for improved wellbeing. At this point, everyone has seen the productivity-pay gap plot showing that most of the improvement in US productivity since 1979 has not translated into increases in real wages. Our current "growth at almost any cost" strategy benefits corporations much more than it benefits the average person.