FTC Report Warns Against Overconfidence In AI Tools To Combat Online Harm

Last month, the FTC issued a report to Congress advising governments and companies to exercise "great caution" in using artificial intelligence ("AI") to combat harmful online content. The report responds to Congress's request to look into whether and how AI may be used to identify, remove, or otherwise address a wide variety of specified "online harms." Among the "harms" covered by Congress's request were impersonation scams, fake reviews and accounts, deepfakes, illegal drug sales, revenge pornography, hate crimes, online harassment and cyberstalking, and misinformation campaigns aimed at influencing elections.

The FTC concluded that the adoption of AI to address these harms could itself introduce additional harms because the tools can be inaccurate, biased, and discriminatory by design. They are also vulnerable to hacking and manipulation, and may rely on increasingly invasive forms of commercial surveillance. These findings add another dimension to the FTC's