The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has released an update warning advertisers to keep their AI product claims "in check."
An agency attorney wrote that AI hype is occurring across many
products, and the FTC is enforcing its rules regarding "false or
unsubstantiated claims about a product's efficacy."
- AI
is currently a hot marketing term, and some advertisers can't "stop
themselves from overusing and abusing" such terms, the FTC attorney
wrote.
- The agency is now asking marketing teams to weigh how they advertise their company's AI products.
- For
example, the FTC focused on exaggerations about AI in advertising,
including claims that a product can "do something beyond the current
capability of any AI or automated technology."
- Companies should be aware of the "reasonably foreseeable risks and impact" of an AI product before bringing it to market.
- The
FTC also says businesses should assess if the product actually uses AI
at all and should know they cannot get away with "baseless claims" that a
product is AI-powered.
