The Federal Trade Commission has issued a proposed order that requires Workado, LLC, to cease advertising its artificial intelligence detection products until it can provide competent and reliable proof that the products are accurate. Before the settlement becomes final, it will be open to public comment.
Chris Mufarrige is the Director of FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Consumers relied on Workado AI Content Detector’s AI Content Detector in order to determine whether AI was the source of a written piece, but it did not perform any better than a simple coin toss.” “Misleading AI claims undermine competition because they make it more difficult for legitimate AI-related product providers to reach consumers.”
Workado’s AI Content Detector is marketed to consumers looking to determine if online content has been created using generative AI technologies, such as ChatGPT, versus if the content was written by a person. The company claimed AI Content Detector had been developed by using a variety of materials, such as blog posts and Wikipedia articles, in order to improve its accuracy for the average user. However, the FTC claims that the AI model behind the AI Content Detector has only been trained or fine-tuned for academic content.
According to the FTC’s administrative complaint, Workado claimed that its AI Content Detector was “98%” accurate at detecting whether a text had been written by AI. According to the FTC administrative complaint, independent testing revealed that the accuracy rate for general-purpose content is only 53 percent. The FTC claims that Workado has violated the FTC Act by making a false, misleading or unsubstantiated claim of “98%”.
The proposed settlement order is intended to prevent Workado from engaging in false, misleading or unsupported advertisements in the future. The proposed order requires Workado to:
- It is prohibited to make any claims about the effectiveness or any product covered unless the company can prove that the claim is accurate and reliable at the time of the claim.
- It is required to keep any evidence used to support efficacy claims.
- Email eligible consumers regarding the consent order or settlement with the Commission.
- Reports of compliance must be submitted to the FTC within one year following the date the order was issued, and then every year thereafter.
The Commission voted 3-0 to accept the consent accord and issue an administrative complaint. The FTC will post a description of consent agreement package to the Federal Register. After the public has commented on the agreement, the Commission will make a final decision. The published notice contains instructions for submitting comments. The Federal Register must publish the notice 30 days after it is published. Comments will be published on Regulations.gov once they have been processed.
NOTE When the Commission has “reasonable belief” that the law is being or has been violated and it appears that a proceeding would be in the public’s interest, it will issue an administrative complaint. The Commission’s consent orders are binding on future actions. A civil penalty up to $53,088 may be imposed for each violation.
Ben Halpern Meekin, of the FTC Northwest Region, is the lead staff attorney in this case.
