Seventh Hearing on Competition and Consumer Protection considers ethical, practical, and legal dimensions of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

On November 13 and 14, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) held the seventh hearing in its series of nine planned Hearings on Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century. In this hearing, the FTC invited comment on a broad host of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning topics, including identifying and accounting for bias in consumer- and employee-facing algorithms and collusion between pricing algorithms. Panelists generally agreed that enhanced pricing algorithms and developments in machine learning will be deeply consequential for consumers, businesses, and regulators in the coming years. But the discussions revealed deep disagreements about what these changes portend for consumer protection and antitrust law and how regulators and the legal system should adapt.