The drastic rightward lurch of Silicon Valley's executive class has been swift and mysterious — but now the key to unlocking the mystery may lie in a cheeky blog post written by a regulator from the Federal Trade Commission. Advisories from federal regulators instructing businesses to follow the law aren't typically known for being funny, but Michael Atleson, an attorney for the agency's advertising division, went viral this month with a public memo warning tech companies to stop falsely advertising their chatbots.
"Your therapy bots aren’t licensed psychologists, your AI girlfriends are neither girls nor friends, your griefbots have no soul, and your AI copilots are not gods," Atleson wrote in a post titled "Succor borne every minute." Comparing so-called "artificial intelligence" to a Magic 8 Ball, the federal regulator chastised tech marketers who "compare their products to magic (they aren’t)" and "talk about the products having feelings (they don’t)." Atleson even joked that his Magic 8 Ball replied, "Outlook not so good," when he asked if he can expect companies to advertise chatbots "in ways that merit no FTC attention."
