Free Speech Risk? FTC Launches Investigation into ChatGPT

The anti-free speech Federal Trade Commission is investigating biased ChatGPT artificial intelligence.

The New York Times reported July 13 that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has begun an investigation into ChatGPT’s maker OpenAI. The FTC sent OpenAI a 20-page letter about whether the chatbot’s collection of data and false information harm people. The FTC’s concern with “false information,” however has potential for abuse as the FTC does not appear to be a purely objective investigator.

Thursday the commission was accused of targeting Twitter almost obsessively after Elon Musk bought the platform and proposed to make it pro-free speech. As potentially harmful and certainly biased as ChatGPT is, could the FTC be just as risky to the preservation of free speech?

The FTC is investigating whether OpenAI “engaged in unfair or deceptive privacy or data security practices or engaged in unfair or deceptive practices relating to risks of harm to consumers,” the Times quoted the letter. 

The investigation appears to be in line with FTC Chair Lina Khan’s perspective on AI regulation. She expressed concern during her testimony at Thursday’s House Judiciary hearing. “ChatGPT and some of these other services are being fed a huge trove of data. There are no checks on what type of data is being inserted into these companies,” she said. Multiple experts have similarly raised these and many other concerns, cautioning against rushing ahead with AI development and implementation.

While an investigation of OpenAI may be prudent, however, the FTC is by far not the most reliable investigator. “This has all the hallmarks of a government shakedown. We’ve seen time and time again how far-left government officials threaten investigations and reviews of private sector companies as part of an effort to induce them to do the government’s bidding,” said MRC Vice President for Free Speech Dan Schneider. He continued, “Companies will often enter into ‘consent orders’ with enforcement agencies just to end the pain, but the pain is simply transferred to every American by these unlawful tactics.” 

Kahn and the FTC received scathing criticism at the hearing Thursday from the Judiciary Committee Chairman. Jim Jordan (R-OH) who  accused her of biased and apparently anti-free speech harassment of Elon Musk’s Twitter. According to Jordan, Kahn tried to rig a disfavorable audit of Twitter’s Trust and Safety operations conducted by private assessor Ernst and Young.

Indeed, as Schneider said, “As the FTC Inspector General and others have shown, Lina Khan has corrupted that agency and turned it into a nuclear-armed guided missile against the Biden administration’s political opponents.” OpenAI has a proven bias, including a study that received overwhelmingly leftist answers from ChatGPT. So ChatGPT is biased and risky, but so is the FTC.

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