The US competition watchdog has launched an investigation into the creators of the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has opened an investigation into ChatGPT maker OpenAI, trying to understand what the company’s data privacy rules are and what it is doing to stop its technology from providing misinformation.
It will study whether ChatGPT caused any harm by incorrectly answering user questions.
The competition watchdog wrote to OpenAI seeking details of its business, including privacy rules, data security regulations, processes and AI technology.
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A spokesman for the FTC had no comment on the matter, which was first reported by The Washington Post.
According to an FTC letter published by The Washington Post, OpenAI is being investigated for whether it “engaged in unfair or deceptive privacy or data security practices” or practices that harmed users.
company Founder Sam AltmanHe said he would cooperate with investigating officials, but expressed disappointment with the opening of the case and how he discovered it through leaks to The Washington Post.
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In a tweet, Altman said the move “doesn’t help build trust,” but added that the company would cooperate with the FTC.
“It’s very important to us that our technology is safe and beneficial to consumers, and that we are confident that we will comply with the law,” he said.
“We protect user privacy and design our systems to understand the world, not individuals.”
The FTC investigation isn’t the only legal challenge OpenAI has faced.
Comedian Sarah Silverman and two other authors have taken legal action against the company and Facebook owner Meta, alleging copyright infringement.
They said the companies’ artificial intelligence systems were illegally “trained” on data sets containing illegal copies of their works.