In a comment submitted to the U.S. Copyright Office, the Federal Trade Commission identifies several issues raised by the development and deployment of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that implicate competition and consumer protection policy, noting the Commission’s role in monitoring the impact of generative AI and vigorously enforcing the law as appropriate to protect competition and consumers.
“The manner in which companies are developing and releasing generative AI tools and other AI products . . . raises concerns about potential harm to consumers, workers, and small businesses,” according to the comment. “The FTC has been exploring the risks associated with AI use, including violations of consumers’ privacy, automation of discrimination and bias, and turbocharging of deceptive practices, imposters schemes and other types of scams.”
The comment explains that the FTC has an interest in copyright-related issues beyond questions about the scope of rights and the extent of liability under the copyright laws. For instance, not only may creators’ ability to compete be unfairly harmed, but consumers may be deceived when authorship does not align with consumer expectations. A consumer may think a work has been created by a particular musician or other artist when it is an AI-created product.
“Conduct that may violate the copyright laws . . . may also constitute an unfair method of competition or an unfair or deceptive practice, especially when the copyright violation deceives...
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