FTC to Host Virtual Summit on AI

The Federal Trade Commission announced that it will be hosting a virtual summit on artificial intelligence to discuss “the state of technology, emerging market trends, and real-world impacts of AI” along with “how to cultivate a marketplace that allows both consumers and businesses, including startups and small businesses, to thrive.” 

The FTC Tech Summit will be held on January 25, 2024 from 12:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.   The summit will have a series of panels, along with remarks by FTC Chair Lina M. Khan, Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, and Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya.  The panel discussions will cover issues such as the hardware and other key infrastructure that will be needed for AI development, the data and models used in AI, and AI-powered consumer applications.

Noting that we're at a pivotal moment, the FTC said, in its announcement of the event, that, “There’s profound potential and opportunity in how these tools can augment our lives—and with millions of use cases, we are seeing the scope of what is possible in a range of fields. However, there are also potential risks and harms: AI may turbocharge fraud, scams, and other misuse. Additionally, companies may use this market tipping moment to leverage anticompetitive tactics to lock in their dominance and block competition.” 

This upcoming summit follows the workshop that the FTC held last fall on artificial intelligence and content creation.  In December, the FTC issued a staff report reporting on key takeaways from the workshop, which included concerns about issues such as creative work being used without consent to train generative AI models and the use of generative AI to create misleading or offensive content.