OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
Win Mcnamee | Getty Images News | Getty Images
The Federal Trade Commission is investigating ChatGPT-maker OpenAI to know if the corporate has violated consumer protection laws.
The Washington Post, which first reported the news, published the FTC’s 20-page civil investigative demand, much like a subpoena, outlining key focuses of the probe. A source conversant in the matter confirmed the authenticity of the document to CNBC. The FTC declined to comment.
The FTC says within the document that the probe will give attention to whether OpenAI has “engaged in unfair or deceptive privacy or data security practices” or “engaged in unfair or deceptive practices referring to risks of harm to consumers, including reputational harm, in violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act.”
Artificial intelligence has turn out to be a hot issue in Washington, with lawmakers trying to know whether latest laws are needed to guard mental property and consumer data within the age of generative AI, which requires massive datasets to learn. The FTC and other agencies have emphasized that they have already got legal authority to pursue harm created by AI.
The probe can also be an example of the FTC being proactive in its oversight of a comparatively nascent technology, in keeping with Chair Lina Khan’s stated goal of being “forward-looking” and being attentive to “next-generation technologies.”
The CID asks OpenAI to list the third parties which have access to its large language models, their top ten customers or licensors, explain how they maintain and use consumer information, how they obtain information to coach their LLMs and more. The document also asks how OpenAI assesses risk in LLMs and the way it monitors and deals with misleading or disparaging statements about people.
The CID asks OpenAI to supply details about a bug the corporate disclosed in March 2020 that “allowed some users to see titles from one other energetic user’s chat history” and “can have caused the unintentional visibility of payment-related information of 1.2% of the ChatGPT Plus subscribers who were energetic during a particular nine-hour window.”
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has mostly received a warm welcome in Washington up until this point, with lawmakers praising his openness to discussing the technology and asking for regulations around it. But some AI experts have warned policymakers also needs to remember the corporate has its own incentives in articulating its vision of regulation and urged them to have interaction a various set of voices.
Altman wrote on Twitter that “it is rather disappointing to see the FTC’s request start with a leak and doesn’t help construct trust.”
“[W]e built GPT-4 on top of years of safety research and spent 6+ months after we finished initial training making it safer and more aligned before releasing it. we protect user privacy and design our systems to learn in regards to the world, not private individuals,” he added. “[W]e’re transparent about the constraints of our technology, especially after we fall short.”
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