NEW YORK — Amid mounting concerns over increasingly powerful artificial intelligence systems like ChatGPT, the country’s financial watchdog said it was working to ensure companies comply with the law when using AI.
Already, automated systems and algorithms help determine credit ratings, loan terms, bank account fees, and other aspects of our financial lives. AI will also affect employment, housing and working conditions.
Ben Winters, senior adviser to the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said the joint enforcement statement issued by federal agencies last month was a positive first step.
“There is a theory that AI is not regulated at all, but it is not,” he says. “They say, ‘Just because you use AI to make a decision doesn’t absolve you of responsibility for the consequences of that decision.'” ‘”
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last year accused banks of relying on new technology and flawed algorithms, mismanaging automated systems and causing unwarranted home and car foreclosures, and loss of benefits payments. announced that he had been fined.
Regulators say there are no “AI exceptions” to consumer protection, citing these enforcement actions as examples.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra said the agency “has already begun efforts to continue to strengthen the company by bringing in data scientists, technologists and others to ensure we can meet these challenges.” said the agency was continuing. To identify potentially illegal activity.
Representatives from the Federal Trade Commission, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Department of Justice, as well as the CFPB, all take aim at new technologies and identify the negative impacts they can have on consumers’ lives. It says it is directing resources and staff. .
“One of the things we’re trying to make clear is that if companies don’t even understand how AI makes decisions, they can’t really take advantage of it,” Chopra said. said Mr. “In other cases, we are investigating how the Fair Lending Act is being complied with regarding the use of all this data.”
For example, under the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, financial providers are legally obligated to explain unfavorable credit decisions. These regulations apply equally to decisions regarding housing and employment. If AI makes decisions in ways that are too opaque to explain, regulators shouldn’t use the algorithms.
“I think there was a sense of, ‘Oh, if we let the robots do it, there won’t be any more discrimination,'” Chopra said. “I think we’ve learned that it’s actually not true at all. In a way, the bias is built into the data.”
EEOC Chairman Charlotte Burroughs said there would be a crackdown on AI recruitment technology that screens job applicants with disabilities, for example, and so-called “bossware,” which illegally monitors workers.
Burroughs also explained how the algorithm dictates when and how employees can work in ways that violate current law.
“If you need a break because you have a disability or you’re pregnant or whatever, you need a break,” she said. “Algorithms don’t necessarily take that adjustment into account. We want to be clear that the message is that the law still applies and we have the tools to enforce it.”
At a conference earlier this month, OpenAI’s top lawyers proposed an industry-led approach to regulation.
“I think it starts with trying to get to some kind of standard,” OpenAI general counsel Jason Kwon said at a technology summit in Washington, D.C. hosted by the software industry group BSA. “They could start with industry standards and some kind of amalgamation around them. Perhaps it will be fertile ground for further discussion.”
Sam Altman, head of OpenAI, which develops ChatGPT, said government intervention is essential to mitigate the risks of “increasingly powerful” AI systems, and has licensed and regulated the technology. suggested the creation of a US or global agency to
While there are no immediate signs that Congress will enact sweeping new AI rules, as European lawmakers do, the public concern prompted Altman and other tech CEOs to visit the White House this month to discuss these issues. answered a difficult question about the impact of the tool.
Mr. Winters of the Electronic Privacy Information Center provides information on the relevant AI market, how the industry works, who the biggest players are, how the information collected is used in the ways of regulators, and more. He said government agencies could do more to investigate and expose He also has experience working with new consumer finance products and technologies in the past.
“The CFPB has done a pretty good job on this for ‘buy now, pay later’ companies,” he said. “There are still a lot of little-known parts of the AI ecosystem.
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Technology reporter Matt O’Brien contributed to this report.
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The Associated Press receives support from the Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. This independent foundation is separate from his Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. and AP is solely responsible for its journalism.
