By Ovunc Kutlu
ISTANBUL (AA) - A US watchdog said it has taken action against American companies deceiving users about their use of artificial intelligence (AI) in unfair ways.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said it is working to protect American consumers from potential harms related to AI, according to a comment submitted as part of the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) notice of inquiry examining the implications of emerging AI technologies.
"The FCC launched a notice of inquiry in November 2023 to examine efforts to address the impact of AI as it works to protect consumers from unwanted and illegal telephone calls and text messages under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act," the FTC said Wednesday in a statement.
"In its comment, the FTC outlined the agency’s efforts to use all the tools at its disposal to address the rapid emergence of new technologies powered by AI and their potential risks to consumers and businesses," it added.
The FTC noted it alleged that Amazon and Ring used highly private data -- voice recordings collected by Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant and videos collected by Ring’s internet-connected home security cameras -- to train their algorithms while violating the privacy of customers.
The regulator and the US Justice Department in May 2023 had charged Amazon with violating children’s privacy laws by keeping children’s Alexa voice recordings forever and undermining deletion requests by parents.
The US agencies had ordered Amazon to pay $25 million and delete children’s data, geolocation data and other voice recordings.
In addition, the FTC said in May 2023 that Ring employees illegally surveilled customers and failed to stop hackers from taking control of users' cameras, prohibiting Ring from profiting from unlawfully accessing consumers' videos and paying $5.8 million in consumer refunds.