FTC reportedly investigating ChatGPT creator OpenAI over consumer protection issues

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has launched an investigation into ChatGPT creator OpenAI and whether the artificial intelligence company violated consumer protection laws by scraping public data and publishing false information through its chatbot, according to reports in the Washington Post and the New York Times.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has launched an investigation into ChatGPT creator OpenAI and whether the artificial intelligence company violated consumer protection laws by scraping public data and publishing false information through its chatbot, according to reports in the Washington Post and the New York Times.

The agency sent OpenAI a 20-page letter requesting detailed information on its AI technology, products, customers, privacy safeguards and data security arrangements, according to the reports. An FTC spokesman had no comment.

OpenAI founder Sam Altman tweeted disappointment that news of the investigation started as a "leak," noting that the move would "not help build trust," but added the company will work with the FTC.

"It's super important to us that out technology is safe and pro-consumer, and we are confident we follow the law," he wrote. "We protect user privacy and design our systems to learn about the world, not private individuals."

The FTC's move represents the most significant regulatory threat so far to the nascent but fast-growing AI industry, although it's not the only challenge facing these companies. Comedian Sarah Silverman and two other authors have sued both OpenAI and Facebook parent Meta for copyright infringement, claiming that the companies' AI systems were illegally "trained" by exposing them to datasets containing illegal copies of their works.

On Thursday, OpenAI and The Associated Press announced a deal under which the AI company will license AP's archive of news stories.

Altman has emerged as a global AI ambassador of sorts following his testimony before Congress in May and a subsequent tour of European capitals where regulators were putting final touches on a new AI regulatory framework. Altman himself has called for AI regulation, although he has tended to emphasize difficult-to-evaluate existential threats such as the possibility that superintelligent AI systems could one day turn against humanity.