FTC seeks investigation and suspension of ChatGPT releases

OpenAI is being hit with a new complaint to the Federal Trade Commission which is asking the agency to investigate the group and suspend its commercial deployment of large language models, which will include the latest update of its ChatGPT tool. 

The complaint, which was made public by the nonprofit research group Center for AI and Digital Policy on Thursday, accuses OpenAI of violating Section 5 of the FTC Act, which prohibits unfair and deceptive business practices, and the agency’s guidance for AI products.

CAIDP calls GPT-4 “biased, deceptive, and a risk to privacy and public safety.” The group says the large language model fails to meet the agency’s standards for AI to be “transparent, explainable, fair, and empirically sound while fostering accountability.”

The group has requested that the FTC to order OpenAI to establish a way to independently assess GPT products before they’re deployed in the future. It also wants the FTC to create a public incident reporting system for GPT-4 like its systems for reporting consumer fraud. It also wants the agency to take on a rulemaking initiative to create standards for generative AI products.

CAIDP’s president, Marc Rotenberg, signed onto a widely circulated open letter released Wednesday that called for a pause of at least six months on “the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.” Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who co-founded OpenAI, and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak were among the other signatories.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The FTC also declined to release a comment.