Extract from Ella Sherman’s article “Future of Speech Online: Gen AI Under Section 230, and a ‘Woke AI’ Executive Order”
During the 2025 Future of Speech Online Conference, hosted Tuesday and Wednesday by the Stand Together Trust and the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), experts touched on Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act and whether it applies to generative artificial intelligence, as well as the intersection of gen AI, federal governance and civil liberties.
Gen AI Protections Under Section 230
In the “Section 230’s Free Expression Firewall” session, experts discussed whether immunity provided under Section 230 protects platforms that offer gen AI.
Experts said whether something like an AI chatbot is protected by Section 230 really depends on the case. Ashkhen Kazaryan, senior legal fellow at Future of Free Speech at Vanderbilt University, said that if the user asks for information and receives a response that is completely new, that response probably does not fall under Section 230 protections.
“It depends. There are cases when it does apply, so for example, … if I just say to a chatbot, ‘Give me a paragraph from these five websites on this question,’ and all the chatbot does is copy paste that information, I think there is an argument to be made that it’s not repurposing the information, it’s not creating new speech, it’s just taking paragraphs and showing it to you,” Kazaryan said. “There is an argument to be made that in that case it would be protected by Section 230, but it is very case-by-case basis.”
