The U.S. Federal Trade Commission just fired a shot across the bow of the artificial intelligence industry. On April 19, 2021, a staff attorney at the agency, which serves as the nation’s leading consumer protection authority, wrote a blog post about biased AI algorithms that included a blunt warning: “Keep in mind that if you don’t hold yourself accountable, the FTC may do it for you.”
The post, titled “Aiming for truth, fairness, and equity in your company’s use of AI,” was notable for its tough and specific rhetoric about discriminatory AI. The author observed that the commission’s authority to prohibit unfair and deceptive practices “would include the sale or use of – for example – racially biased algorithms” and that industry exaggerations regarding the capability of AI to make fair or unbiased hiring decisions could result in “deception, discrimination – and an FTC law enforcement action.”
Bias seems to pervade the AI industry. Companies large and small are selling demonstrably biased systems, and their customers are in turn applying them in ways that disproportionately affect the vulnerable and marginalized. Examples of areas where they are being abused include health care, criminal justice and hiring.
Whatever they say or do, companies seem unable or unwilling to rid their data sets and models of the racial, gender and other biases that suffuse society. Industry efforts to address fairness and equity have come under fire as inadequate or poorly supported by leadership, sometimes warns industry discriminate
