On Thursday, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission announced that it has forwarded a complaint against Snap Inc. to the Justice Department, alleging that the messaging app’s artificial intelligence chatbot caused injury to its younger users.
The consumer protection agency stated that it was in the public interest to make the complaint transfer to the DOJ public, but it did not elaborate on the claimed harm caused by the My AI chatbot.
The FTC “lacks concrete evidence,” according to a Snap representative, while My AI integrates “rigorous safety and privacy standards.”
During its inquiry, the FTC claimed to have “uncovered cause to think Snap is breaking or is about to violate the law.”
On Thursday, Snap’s stock closed at $11.22, down 5.2%.
(Doina Chiacu and Jasper Ward reported; Caitlin Webber, Rod Nickel, and Matthew Lewis edited.)
