FTC Issued a Report on AI from the October 2023 Roundtable Meeting

The FTC released the Generative Artificial Intelligence and the Creative Economy Staff Report in December 2023, detailing technological developments in Artificial Intelligence (“AI”), jurisdictional interest in AI, and information from a roundtable meeting in October 2023. The report is intended for legal, policy, and academic communities to consider the implications of generative AI. The FTC, is considering its role in the development and deployment of AI, a technology that poses significant challenges to consumers, workers, and businesses. The agency's enforcement authority is primarily derived from Section 5 of the FTC Act, which prohibits unfair practices and methods of competition. The Executive Order on AI's Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development encourages the FTC to exercise its existing authorities to ensure competition and protect the public. The FTC is using its legal authority to enforce against illegal practices involving AI, such as Amazon and Ring using private data to train algorithms without violating customer privacy. The Alexa case highlighted the indefinite retention of children's data, while a temporary restraining order was secured against a business-opportunity seller that claimed to use AI to make clients profitable. WealthPress was charged with using deceptive claims to sell investment-advising services. The FTC has also emphasized that businesses relying on algorithmic decision-making must ensure it doesn't result in unlawful bias.