The Federal Commerce Fee has eliminated three weblog posts from the Lina Khan-era that addressed open-source AI and dangers of AI to customers, in keeping with a Wired report.
One submit, titled “On Open-Weights Basis Fashions,” was revealed July 10, 2024. One other, titled “Shoppers Are Voicing Considerations About AI,” got here out in October 2023. A 3rd, authored by Khan’s employees, was revealed on January 3, 2025 with the title “AI and the Danger of Client Hurt.” That submit famous the FTC was “being attentive to AI’s potential for real-world cases of hurt – from incentivizing business surveillance to enabling fraud and impersonation to perpetuating unlawful discrimination.”
Trendster has reached out to the FTC to study why the posts have been taken down. Khan declined to remark.
These removals are a part of a broader sample beneath the Trump administration, which started issuing govt orders to direct federal companies to take away or modify substantial quantities of presidency content material.
After his inauguration, Trump additionally put in a brand new head of the FTC and eliminated a number of FTC commissioners, putting in management that targeted much less on Khan’s aggressive antitrust agenda and extra on deregulation for Huge Tech. In September, new FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson submitted suggestions for deleting or revising anticompetitive rules throughout the whole federal authorities.
The weblog posts most lately eliminated by the FTC, which targeted on shopper hurt, don’t appear to align with the Trump administration’s AI Motion Plan. That plan has decreased its give attention to security and guardrails, as a substitute favoring quick development and competitors with China. Nevertheless, the Trump administration has been vocal about backing open-source initiatives.
Former FTC public affairs director Douglas Farrar informed Trendster: “I used to be shocked to see the Andrew Ferguson led FTC be so out of line with the Trump White Home on this sign to the market.”
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This isn’t the primary time this administration’s FTC has eliminated content material. In March, Wired reported that the FTC eliminated round 300 posts associated to AI, shopper safety, and the company’s lawsuits in opposition to tech corporations like Amazon and Microsoft.
Whereas tons of of weblog posts from Khan’s tenure and earlier stay on the company’s Workplace of Know-how Weblog, Ferguson’s FTC has but to publish any posts to the location, regardless of the quick tempo of the AI race, which has resulted in a number of enterprise mergers and acquisitions — together with acqui-hires — that might be seen as anticompetitive.
The FTC weblog culling follows the Trump administration’s removing or modification of hundreds of presidency net pages and datasets, notably content material associated to variety; fairness, and inclusion; gender identification; public well being; and environmental coverage. For instance, the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention has eliminated information on matters starting from power medical circumstances to HIV/AIDS. The Justice Division has eliminated research on hate crimes, and the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has taken down the congressionally mandated Nationwide Local weather Evaluation studies.
The removing of content material – together with the weblog posts from the FTC – may violate the Federal Information Act, which requires federal companies to protect data that correctly doc authorities actions, and the Open Authorities Information Act, which requires companies to publish their information as “open information” by default.
The Biden administration’s FTC management positioned warning labels on content material revealed throughout earlier administrations that it disagreed with, in keeping with Wired.
