Enlarge / FTC Chair Lina M. Khan testifies throughout a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee nomination listening to on April 21, 2021, in Washington, DC.
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On Wednesday, Federal Commerce Fee (FTC) Chair Lina Khan pledged to make use of present legal guidelines to manage AI in a New York Instances op-ed, “We Should Regulate A.I. Right here’s How.” Within the piece, she warns of AI dangers comparable to market dominance by massive tech corporations, collusion, and the potential for elevated fraud and privateness violations.
Within the op-ed, Khan cites the rise of the “Net 2.0” period within the mid-2000s as a cautionary story for AI’s enlargement, saying that the expansion of tech firms led to invasive surveillance and lack of privateness. Khan feels that public officers should now guarantee historical past doesn’t repeat itself with AI, however with out unduly proscribing innovation.
“As these applied sciences evolve,” she wrote, “we’re dedicated to doing our half to uphold America’s longstanding custom of sustaining the open, honest and aggressive markets which have underpinned each breakthrough improvements and our nation’s financial success—with out tolerating enterprise fashions or practices involving the mass exploitation of their customers.”
Khan’s op-ed comes when rising hype and anxiousness about generative AI like ChatGPT has begun to dominate the tech world. Rising use of the nebulous time period “AI” in commerce has led the FTC to publish clarifying statements about the way it plans to cope with these new applied sciences (and doubtlessly deceptive claims about them) on its web site.
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In step with these earlier statements, Khan made a degree of noting that AI represents nothing particular within the eyes of the legislation. “Though these instruments are novel, they don’t seem to be exempt from present guidelines,” she wrote, “and the FTC will vigorously implement the legal guidelines we’re charged with administering, even on this new market.”
Moreover, Khan’s plans for AI transcend the favored AI chatbots of generative AI, extending to different types of automation and algorithmic decision-making. She mentions no less than 4 key areas of concern:
- Guaranteeing honest competitors: Stopping massive tech corporations from exploiting their market dominance and utilizing collusion to stifle innovation and smaller rivals within the AI panorama.
- Strengthening shopper safety: Safeguarding customers from misleading and fraudulent practices enabled by AI, comparable to phishing scams, deepfake movies, and voice cloning.
- Selling information privateness: Monitoring AI techniques to make sure they adhere to information safety legal guidelines and forestall exploitative information assortment or utilization, defending customers’ private info.
- Combating discriminatory practices: Guaranteeing AI techniques don’t perpetuate or amplify biases and discrimination, which may result in unfair remedy in areas like employment, housing, or entry to important companies.
A few of these components have beforehand been specified by the Biden administration’s “AI Invoice of Rights” tips printed in October. These tips don’t explicitly have the power of legislation behind them, however the FTC has the latitude to interpret present legal guidelines to use to AI. “The FTC is properly outfitted with authorized jurisdiction to deal with the problems delivered to the fore by the quickly creating A.I. sector,” Khan mentioned.
Wanting forward, Khan asks: Can the USA proceed to foster world-leading expertise with out accepting “race-to-the-bottom enterprise fashions” and “monopolistic management” that locks out higher-quality merchandise. Her reply? “Sure—if we make the appropriate coverage decisions.”
Originally posted 2023-05-04 00:01:55.