To its credit, OpenAI isn’t hiding the ball when it comes to ChatGPT’s flaws. The FTC’s investigation into OpenAI smells very much like a pretext for lawmakers to target the entire field of generative AI. Just last month, members of Congress issued a letter imploring YouTube to change its election misinformation policy after the company announced it would roll back the more restrictive rules it deployed during the 2020 election. Getty Images OpenAI is just one of many big-tech companies to come under government scrutiny everyone from Microsoft to Meta has had to face Federal regulators. FTC chair Lina Khan has defended her agency’s record of investigating big tech companies. Two years ago, the US surgeon general pressured Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to change their algorithms to prevent COVID misinformation. Policymakers have been running this playbook against social media companies for years. Of course, invoking the specter of misinformation in order to sow anti-tech animosity is nothing new in Washington. And that’s a problem for the FTC the agency regulates competition, but a speech regulator it is most certainly not. But ChatGPT derives its intelligence from publicly available user-generated speech such as articles, e-books, and websites. The FTC’s concerns about the publishing of false information appear heavily influenced by President Biden - along with a handful in Congress - openly worried about AI’s ability to spread misinformation. At stake in the FTC probe is whether ChatGPT “scrapes” publicly available data and whether its use of that data violates consumer protection laws. The platform - at least for the moment - appears uninterested in pirating data belonging to ordinary users, but rather in acquiring knowledge needed to become a better resource for them. Regarding the former, it is already legal to scrape publicly available information on the Internet, which is primarily what ChatGPT does. One surrounding data scraping, another around publishing false information about people – though really the folks we’re talking about here are public figures since ChatGPT doesn’t have information on ordinary individuals. In the case of OpenAI, the FTC has two claims. They also call into question whether these moves are really in the public’s best interests - or motivated by a partisan scheme to scapegoat tech giants. Whether it’s attempting to redesign consent decrees with Meta, block mergers by Microsoft, or launching overly broad privacy investigations into Twitter, the FTC’s actions undermine the institution’s credibility. OpenAI-founder Sam Altman has made clear he understands the need for AI regulations and has already appeared in front of government officials in Washington. But the FTC’s crusade has morphed far beyond mere law enforcement into an abuse of power designed to generate headlines and berate big tech wherever possible. Thanks to Musk’s takeover of Twitter and TikTok’s potential for national security leaks, it’s become vogue to demonize Big Tech these days. Under Chair Lina Khan, who defended her agency’s record against the tech industry during a congressional hearing last week, the FTC is targeting tech at every turn. OpenAI is not alone in facing the FTC’s glare. The goal: To determine whether OpenAI’s signature app, ChatGPT, has harmed consumers by engaging in unfair and deceptive privacy practices and publishing false information about users through its chatbot. The agency subpoenaed OpenAI last week as part of an investigation into potential consumer protection laws. Robots at AI conference say they won’t steal jobs, rebel against humansīiden’s regulations costing Americans $10K per household: watchdogĭespite a recent losing streak against tech companies that would make the Oakland Athletics look competitive, the FTC has a new tech bogeyman. Mexican city bans misogynistic lyrics from live venues with threat of hefty fine Meet Jared Polis, a Democratic gov who actually cares about freedom
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