U.S. officials seek to crack down on harmful AI products

The federal government will “not hesitate to crack down” on harmful business practices involving artificial intelligence, the head of the Federal Trade Commission warned Tuesday in a message partly directed at the developers of widely-used AI tools such as ChatGPT. 

FTC Chair Lina Khan joined top officials from U.S. civil rights and consumer protection agencies to put businesses on notice that regulators are working to track and stop illegal behavior in the use and development of biased or deceptive AI tools.  

Much of the scrutiny has been on those who deploy automated tools that amplify bias into decisions about who to hire, how worker productivity is monitored, or who get access to housing and loans.  

But amid a fast-moving race between tech giants such as Google and Microsoft in selling more advanced tools that generate text, images, and other content resembling the work of humans, Khan also raised the possibility of the FTC wielding its antitrust authority to protect competition.