Can the government require ID before you use artificial intelligence? | The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression

Ah, the state's latest solution to the AI problem: make everyone show their papers before chatting with a chatbot. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression has spotted the obvious — that age assurance laws, sold as 'think of the children!' measures, inevitably morph into mandatory government-issued ID for every digital interaction. Because nothing says 'we understand free speech' like having to scan your driver's license before asking an LLM for a cake recipe.

The logic is as predictable as it is chilling. Start with a reasonable-sounding goal — protecting minors from AI-generated smut — then quietly expand the infrastructure until any anonymous thought requires a biometric key. FIRE points out that this isn't hypothetical: several states are already tooling up verification regimes that could easily become a de facto national ID. The gap between 'we just want to check your age' and 'the state knows every AI prompt you've ever typed' is roughly the width of a statutory instrument.

What's truly magnificent is the fantasy that this will somehow make AI safer. Because forcing everyone to register their digital footprint has never, ever been abused by governments, right? The whole exercise is a masterclass in regulatory theatre — a performative solution to a genuine concern that will do precisely nothing to stop bad actors while handing the state a shiny new surveillance tool. But hey, at least the children are safe from ChatGPT's risqué limericks. For now.