Senate leaders ask FTC to investigate AI content summaries as anti-competitive
Reading Time: 2 minutesA group of Democratic senators is urging the FTC and Justice Department to investigate whether AI tools that summarize and regurgitate online content like news and recipes may amount to anticompetitive practices.
In a letter to the agencies, the senators, led by Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), explained their position that the latest AI features are hitting creators and publishers while they’re down.
As journalistic outlets experience unprecedented consolidation and layoffs, ‘dominant online platforms, such as Google and Meta, generate billions of dollars per year in advertising revenue from news and other original content created by others. New generative AI features threaten to exacerbate these problems.’
The letter continues:
Essentially, the senators are saying that a handful of major companies control the market for monetizing original content via advertising, and that those companies are rigging that market in their favor. Either you consent to having your articles, recipes, stories, and podcast transcripts indexed and used as raw material for an AI, or you’re cut out of the loop.
The letter goes on to ask the FTC and DOJ to investigate whether these new methods are ‘a form of exclusionary conduct or an unfair method of competition in violation of the antitrust laws.’
Though it’s clearly a serious issue — and one that affects this outlet — the FTC may have its work cut out for it here. While AI summaries of web content may provide highly lopsided benefits, there are many power relationships in play in business and media, and the bar for anticompetitive behavior is quite high.
For instance, in this case, it would have to be shown that the AI makers have overwhelming market power and that they are using that power in ways specifically forbidden by law. Something can be unfair, unethical, and perfectly legal.
Considering how hawkish the FTC is on these matters already, however, it’s likely that Sen. Klobuchar and her colleagues are preaching to the choir as a prelude to taking action of their own. Klobuchar herself, watching out for journalism and local papers especially, introduced a bill last year aimed to empowering the supply side of news licensing negotiations and giving news outlets a bit more clout when asking Google or whoever to pay for their content.
Fast-forward a year and the concerns of 2022 and early 2023 look quaint: The same companies accused of strong-arming content providers are now, many argue, circumventing the whole market by feeding the content to the AI for summaries.
Asking the regulators to take a swing at an industry’s undesirable behaviors is part of a paper trail that legislators leave when trying to make a law. If the FTC and DOJ find they can’t act, it clears the signatories of this letter to propose a new law so that those agencies can act. While last year’s save-the-papers bill didn’t go far, a new one tied to fears about AI overlords might do better — certainly it’s a good talking point for the election cycle.
The letter was co-signed by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Tina Smith (D-MN).
Ref: techcrunch
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