U.S. advocacy group asks FTC to stop new OpenAI GPT releases

In a letter to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Center for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Policy has urged the regulatory body to stop further commercial releases of OpenAI’s newest AI program, GPT-4. The center noted that this technology is considered “biased, deceptive and a risk to privacy and public safety.”

OpenAI recently introduced the GPT-4, which has impressed some users with its human-like responses to queries while causing others to worry about the potential risks to society. The ethics group’s request follows a letter that was signed by celebrities, artificial intelligence experts, and industry executives, calling for a temporary halt to the development of systems more potent than OpenAI’s newly-introduced technology.

The Center for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Policy stated in its complaint that ChatGPT-4 does not meet the FTC’s guidelines for transparency, explainability, fairness, and empirical soundness while fostering accountability. According to the advocacy group, OpenAI showed private chat histories to other users, and an AI researcher found that it was possible to “take over someone’s account, view their chat history, and access their billing information without them ever realizing it.”

The center argues that there may be commercial pressures on OpenAI to introduce a product that is not yet ready, and this is what worries Marc Rotenberg, the group’s president and a veteran privacy advocate. Rotenberg added that OpenAI is not complying with the FTC guidelines, and the product may be unfair and deceptive.

The center has called on the U.S. FTC to investigate OpenAI, stop the commercial release of GPT-4, and establish necessary regulations to protect consumers, businesses, and the commercial marketplace from the potential risks of the newly introduced AI program.

Reporting: Diane Bartz; Editing: Mark Porter