The United States\u2019 competition watchdog has opened an investigation into ChatGPT creator OpenAI amid suspicions the startup broke the law by scraping public data and publishing false and defamatory information.<\/p>\n
In a 20-page letter, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has requested OpenAI to provide detailed information about its technology and privacy protections, including any efforts to prevent a repeat of incidents in which its groundbreaking chatbot published false and disparaging information about members of the public.<\/p>\n
The Washington Post first reported on the \u201cexpansive\u201d probe on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The FTC declined to comment when contacted by Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe protect user privacy and design our systems to learn about the world, not private individuals. We\u2019re transparent about the limitations of our technology, especially when we fall short.\u201d<\/p>\n
OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman said the leak of the regulator\u2019s probe was \u201cdisappointing\u201d and would not help build trust.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe built GPT-4 on top of years of safety research and spent 6+ months after we finished initial training making it safer and more aligned before releasing it,\u201d Altman said on Twitter, referring to ChatGPT\u2019s more advanced successor.<\/p>\n
The FTC investigation marks potentially the strongest regulatory move yet to rein in the nascent field of artificial intelligence, whose rapid advancement has generated excitement as well as<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, FTC chair Lina Khan told a congressional committee the agency was concerned about \u201cfraud and deception\u201d associated with ChatGPT\u2019s output.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve heard about libel, defamatory statements, flatly untrue things that are emerging,\u201d Khan said, without disclosing the FTC probe.<\/p>\n
OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT set the tech world alight upon its launch in November with its uncanny ability to mimic human speech.<\/p>\n
But the chatbot has also generated controversy due to its tendency to produce inaccurate and offensive content.<\/p>\n
Global regulators have been scrambling to develop rules to govern AI as tech firms are rapidly rolling out more advanced versions of the technology.<\/p>\n
The US Senate is considering two separate bipartisan AI bills aimed at ensuring US competitiveness and improving transparency around the technology\u2019s use by the government.<\/p>\n
The European Union in April reached a preliminary deal on legislation to govern the use of AI that would categorise technologies as posing an unacceptable risk, high risk or limited risk.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n