Recently we have seen an explosion in the use of AI around the world. ChatGPT may have helped speed up the rollout of AI, but it has been around for some time. Now the FTC has teamed up with the Department of Justice and more to assure Americans they are being proactive in protecting them.
Today the FTC, Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission all released a joint statement on the growth of AI and what they are doing.
“We already see how AI tools can turbocharge fraud and automate discrimination, and we won’t hesitate to use the full scope of our legal authorities to protect Americans from these threats,” said Chair Khan. “Technological advances can deliver critical innovation—but claims of innovation must not be cover for lawbreaking. There is no AI exemption to the laws on the books, and the FTC will vigorously enforce the law to combat unfair or deceptive practices or unfair methods of competition.”
Here are some of the things this joint effort are doing to help protect Americans from people misusing IA.
- The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) supervises, sets rules
for, and enforces numerous federal consumer financial laws and guards
consumers in the financial marketplace from unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices and from discrimination. The CFPB published a circular
confirming that federal consumer financial laws and adverse action
requirements apply regardless of the technology being used. The circular also made clear that the fact that the technology used to make a credit decision is too complex, opaque, or new is not a defense for violating these laws. - The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division (Division) enforces
constitutional provisions and federal statutes prohibiting discrimination across many facets of life, including in education, the criminal justice system,
employment, housing, lending, and voting. Among the Division’s other work
on issues related to AI and automated systems, the Division recently filed a
statement of interest in federal court explaining that the Fair Housing Act
applies to algorithm-based tenant screening services. - The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforces
federal laws that make it illegal for an employer, union, or employment
agency to discriminate against an applicant or employee due to a person’s
race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual
orientation), national origin, age (40 or older), disability, or genetic information (including family medical history). In addition to the EEOC’s enforcement activities on discrimination related to AI and automated systems, the EEOC issued a technical assistance document explaining how the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to the use of software, algorithms, and AI to make employment-related decisions about job applicants and employees. - The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) protects consumers from deceptive
or unfair business practices and unfair methods of competition across most
sectors of the U.S. economy by enforcing the FTC Act and numerous other
laws and regulations. The FTC issued a report evaluating the use and impact
of AI in combatting online harms identified by Congress. The report outlines
significant concerns that AI tools can be inaccurate, biased, and discriminatory by design and incentivize relying on increasingly invasive forms of commercial surveillance. The FTC has also warned market participants that it may violate the FTC Act to use automated tools that have
3 discriminatory impacts, to make claims about AI that are not substantiated, or to deploy AI before taking steps to assess and mitigate risks. Finally, the FTC has required firms to destroy algorithms or other work product that were trained on data that should not have been collected.
“Today, our agencies reiterate our resolve to monitor the development and use of
automated systems and promote responsible innovation. We also pledge to vigorously use our collective authorities to protect individuals’ rights regardless of whether legal violations occur through traditional means or advanced technologies.” The joint statement read.
For now, AI is still a young technology, but it is maturing rapidly and will likely be a major impact in the future of almost everything we do every day. Now the government wants to make it clear that they are working on ways to protect us from misuse of it.