Consumer protection organizations have recently raised concerns about the risks posed by AI-powered chatbot services such as ChatGPT, and have urged authorities to investigate the issue. BEUC, an umbrella group that represents 46 consumer organizations in 32 countries, wrote letters to both the Consumer Safety Network and the Consumer Protection Authority, asking them to take action and protect consumers from potentially misleading or deceptive advertising.
The organization highlighted the risks that chatbots can pose to younger consumers and children who could be misled by its content, and asked authorities to look into the presence of these AI systems in consumer markets. They have asked the Consumer Safety Network to start an exchange of information and an investigation into safety risks associated with these products.
ChatGPT is an AI-powered chatbot platform which provides customers with virtual assistant services that are designed to provide automated customer support and solve customer queries. It is powered by Artificial Intelligence to custom built conversation topics based on customer needs and is intended to reduce average customer support cost and optimize transaction success rate.
The aforementioned letter was written by Ursula Pachl, Deputy Director of BEUC, who urged investigators to explore what remedial action needs to be taken to avoid consumer harm. She has been advocating on behalf of consumers regarding the risks posed by these AI-powered services for quite some time. Her work has been instrumental in raising awareness about the safety concerns and prompting authorities to step up their investigations.
