BY REBECCA KLAR
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recommended Congress proceed with caution in promoting artificial intelligence (AI) tools to combat online harm in a report the commissioners voted to publish Thursday.
The report concluded that “great caution is needed in either mandating the use of or over relying on these tools even for the important purpose of reducing harms,” according to a summary delivered by FTC staff attorney Michael Atleson at Thursday’s commission meeting.
“While continued innovation in this area and research is important, Congress should not be promoting the use of these tools and to focus instead on putting guardrails on their use,” he said.
Tech companies need to be more transparent about and accountable for the use and impact of AI tools to figure out what the guardrails should be, he said. The commission voted 4-1 to advance the report, with Republican Commissioner Christine Wilson joining the three Democrats. Republican Commissioner Noah Phillips dissented based more on concerns about the process by which the report was conducted than on its conclusions.
The report was conducted as part of a mandate from Congress in December 2021.
Although Wilson joined Democrats in voting to publish the report, she voiced some reservations.
Wilson said she agreed with the report’s recommendation that Congress “should generally steer clear of laws that require, assume the use of, or pressure companies to deploy AI tools to detect harmful content.”