WASHINGTON – A group of 20 House Democrats on Wednesday called on Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian to answer questions about whether he uses generative artificial intelligence to price airline tickets.
In a letter seen by Reuters, the lawmakers, including Jesús “Chuy” Garcia, Jerrold Nadler, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Dan Goldman, called on Delta Air Lines to clarify whether it uses AI to drive up prices through “individualized monitoring-based price discrimination.”
“Delta has never used, is testing, or does not plan to use fare products that target personalized offers to customers based on personal information or other information,” Delta Air Lines said Wednesday.
Lawmakers have expressed concern that airlines could use AI, personal data or consumers’ internet usage, such as visits to funeral home websites, to determine when people most want to travel and then raise airfares and other fees.
Lawmakers said Delta did not do enough to address concerns when senators raised them in July.
“Delta Air Lines claims to have ‘rigorous safeguards in place to ensure compliance with federal law,’ but does not explain what those safeguards are,” they wrote.
In August, Transport Secretary Sean Duffy said he would investigate whether airlines were using AI to set prices.
“If some company wanted to use AI to independently price seats, we would be very involved,” Duffy said.
Delta Air Lines previously announced plans to deploy AI-based revenue management technology across 20% of its domestic network by the end of 2025, in partnership with AI pricing firm Fetcherr.
According to the House letter, Delta President Glenn Hauenstein previously said the airline would use AI-powered generative pricing to tailor airfares to “the time, the person, the individual.”
Democratic Reps. Greg Casar and Rashida Tlaib, who also signed the letter, introduced a bill in July that would prohibit companies from using AI to set prices and wages based on Americans’ personal data, and would specifically prohibit airlines from increasing individual prices based on searches for family obituaries. The bill is still pending.
In August, Delta Air Lines said in response to senators that the airline has used dynamic pricing for more than 30 years, in which prices change based on a variety of factors, including overall customer demand, fuel prices and competition, but not based on a particular consumer’s personal information.
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