FTC Investigates Creator of ChatGPT, OpenAI

What's the story?

• The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has launched an investigation into OpenAI, the tech start-up behind ChatGPT. 
• The agency sent a 20-page letter to OpenAI, inquiring about the company's security practices and requesting information on how it trains its AI models and handles personal data. 
• The FTC is also investigating potential harm to consumers caused by data collection and providing false information, which poses the largest regulatory threat to OpenAI so far. 

OpenAI under pressure

• In March 2023, Italy's data protection authority banned ChatGPT, accusing OpenAI of unlawful data collection and the absence of an age-verification system to protect minors from inappropriate content. OpenAI later reinstated access to ChatGPT after making the changes requested by the Italian authority.
• AI experts, policymakers, and public figures signed a statement published by the Center for AI Safety, emphasizing the need to address the risk of global extinction caused by artificial intelligence. 
• Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) circulated a broad framework for regulating artificial intelligence called the "Safe Innovation Framework for AI Policy."

FTC vs. Artificial intelligence

• Previously, the FTC initiated investigations following significant public mistakes by companies, such as the Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2018.
• In this case, the FTC is acting faster than usual, launching an investigation less than a year after OpenAI released ChatGPT.
• Lina Khan, chair of FTC, believes that tech companies should be regulated when their technologies are new and emerging rather than waiting until they are fully developed. In an opinion piece for the New York Times, Khan wrote: 

"Enforcers have the dual responsibility of watching out for the dangers posed by new A.I. technologies while promoting the fair competition needed to ensure the market for these technologies develops lawfully. The F.T.C. is well equipped with legal jurisdiction to handle the issues brought to the fore by the rapidly developing A.I. sector, including collusion, monopolization, mergers, price discrimination and unfair methods of competition."

What do you think? Should the FTC wait for substantial harm before regulating AI?

-Laura Woods

(Image credit: Unsplash)