Four U.S. government agencies on Tuesday warned that they already have the power to address and deal with illegal or harmful business practices involving AI.
"There is no AI exemption to the laws on the books, said Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan.
In addition to the FTC, the agencies involved were theConsumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
- Each has announced ways that they could take action against businesses that utilize AI in harmful ways.
- The CFPB, for example, is examining housing discrimination stemming from bias linked to housing valuation algorithms.
- The DOJ's Civil Rights Division is prepared to hold companies accountable if their AI uses prove to be discriminatory under federal civil rights laws.
- The EEOC's focus is on AI in hiring, where an employer may screen out candidates if the AI system was trained on biased data, for example.
- Finally, the FTC could crack down on firms that illegally work to prevent competitors from entering the AI market.