Has the FTC Been Overreaching? The Balance Between AI Regulation and Innovation
At CES 2025, an insightful panel featuring Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Commissioners Rebecca Slaughter and Melissa Holyoak, along with former FTC Commissioners Christine Wilson and Julie Brill, tackled the evolving regulatory landscape for artificial intelligence (AI). They examined the FTC’s role in AI oversight, particularly through the unfair and deceptive acts or practices (UDAP) of half of its authority (the other half is unfair methods of competition or UMC). While the agency plays a crucial role in protecting consumers [...]
The AI Revolution is Far From Over: Three Key Observations on DeepSeek’s Impact
The AI industry is often called “fast-moving,” but rarely has it moved as fast as it did last week. Over the previous weekend, Chinese startup DeepSeek released an AI assistant app powered by its new R1 model that quickly overtook ChatGPT atop the App Store charts. Thanks to efficiencies in DeepSeek’s training process, it appears that R1 can achieve comparable performance to the current market leaders at a fraction of the up-front cost. And thanks to DeepSeek’s decision to [...]
Always be Filing: ACT | The App Association Filing Activity January 2025
Throughout the year, our policy team submits filings with government bodies worldwide to advocate for a regulatory environment that inspires and rewards innovation. From issues around regulating artificial intelligence to digital trade, our team is ACTive on a wide range of topics that could have a positive or negative impact on our small business members driving the app economy. Below is a roundup of our filings from around the globe this past month. Title: Targeted Consultation on Internet Governance Entity: [...]
More Than a Leg: The True Costs of Chair Khan’s White Whale Hunt
Authors both in support of and opposed to outgoing Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan’s aggressive antitrust agenda often liken her pursuit of Amazon to Captain Ahab’s obsession with the infamous white whale in Moby Dick. For those who have not followed the saga, it may seem like the pundits are leaning too heavily on a literary crutch, but in truth, the analogy is hard to avoid. Like a polished whalebone prosthetic attached below the knee, it just [...]