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NEW YORK – Companies involved in the rapid growth of artificial intelligence are not operating in a regulatory vacuum, but are held accountable by existing laws to prevent fraud, said U.S. Federal Trade Commission Chairman Rina Kern. warned that it may be questioned.
Speaking at a presentation at a Manhattan bookstore on Thursday, Khan said the technology was new, but companies needed to make sure they were operating within the law.
In a May 3 New York Times op-ed, Khan was asked to explain the purpose behind his op-ed calling for regulation of generative AI. The technology has caused a great deal of anxiety in recent weeks due to concerns that it could replicate human behavior in the workplace or be used for fraudulent purposes.
In an interview with venture capitalist Bradley Tusk, Khan said the FTC is concerned that a strong market incumbent could weigh on competitors in the space.
Under Khan’s leadership, the FTC will explore the ability of large corporations to motivate consumers to buy, how social media is affecting children, and how large corporations are not accumulating undue dominance over market competition. It is at the forefront of pursuing the responsibility of major companies regarding such things as.
In March, digital freedom advocates asked the FTC to investigate OpenAI over ChatGPT, and the agency launched an investigation into competition in the cloud computing space.
Khan said there are interesting questions about the various inputs to AI, and regulators need to be vigilant to ensure that competitors are not forced out of competition for specific applications or models.
Data security best practices
The FTC is also working to get businesses to adopt best practices on how to protect customer data and respond to data breaches and malicious attacks.
This includes strengthening security practices for corporate data.
The agency is working to help businesses act more proactively on the front end to protect consumer data before an incident occurs. Khan said authorities are putting more scrutiny on executives to hold them accountable for how companies protect customer data.
Khan highlighted a 2022 lawsuit against Drizzly, an online liquor marketplace that operates as a division of Uber. The lawsuit exposed the data of 2.5 million customers.
In response to additional questions from Cybersecurity Dive, Khan said he supports federal privacy laws, but praised the efforts states have made to protect consumer data.
“So I want to make sure federal privacy laws are the floor, not the ceiling,” Khan said.
