FTC urged to investigate AI companies over ‘buying and destroying books to train models’

A coalition of over a dozen advocacy and civil society groups has reportedly urged the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to launch a formal inquiry into major artificial intelligence (AI) companies for allegedly purchasing, scanning and physically destroying print books to train their machine learning systems. In a joint petition initially obtained by Axios, organisations including the Consumer Federation of America, Demand Progress Education Fund and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance asked federal regulators to inspect what they describe as a destructive and aggressive data collection method employed by entrenched AI market leaders.

The report says that if the FTC acts on the request, the regulatory debate surrounding training data could transition from intellectual property disputes into an antitrust and market competition battle under which, federal regulators would evaluate whether major tech companies are intentionally eliminating physical source material to deny upstart competitors the resources needed to build rival systems.