FTC Pledges ‘All the Tools at Its Disposal’ to Govern AI

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said it is using “all the tools at its disposal” to oversee the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.

The commission made that statement Wednesday (July 31) when submitting comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) about its efforts in the AI space.

The FTC is working “to address the rapid emergence of new technologies powered by AI and their potential risks to consumers and businesses,” it said, taking “action against companies that deceive users about their use of AI or use AI in unfair ways.”

The commission gives the example of its allegation that Amazon and Ring used private data — voice recordings collected by Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant and videos collected by Ring’s internet-connected home security cameras — to train their algorithms while violating customers’ privacy.

Ring reached a $5.8 million settlement with the FTC last year. The commission has also been investigating recent AI efforts by Big Tech companies, such as Amazon’s relationship with the AI firm Adept and Microsoft’s hiring of the leadership of Inflection AI.

The FTC also pointed to its efforts to combat AI-powered voice cloning, noting that scammers are using this “technology to impersonate family or friends, business executives or others to obtain money from consumers.”

The FCC in February voted to make it illegal for companies to use AI-generated voices in robocalls, a ruling that gives state attorneys general another tool to use against voice cloning scams: they can they can prosecute fraudsters for not only the scam but also for using AI to generate the voice in the robocall.

“We’re putting the fraudsters behind these robocalls on notice,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a news release. “State Attorneys General will now have new tools to crack down on these scams and ensure the public is protected from fraud and misinformation.”

Last week, the FTC joined its counterparts from the European Union and the United Kingdom in issuing a rare joint statement about potential antitrust issues in the AI field.

The statement outlined concerns about market concentration and anti-competitive practices in generative AI — the technology fueling popular chatbots like ChatGPT.

“There are risks that firms may attempt to restrict key inputs for the development of AI technologies,” the regulators warned, highlighting the need for quick action in the rapidly evolving sector.