• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, September 25, 2024

The artificial intelligence company Rytr, which generates testimonials and other written material, has agreed to settle charges that it enabled people to write phony reviews, the Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday.

“Respondent’s service generates detailed reviews that contain specific, often material details that have no relation to the user’s input,” the FTC alleged in its complaint against Rytr.

The agency added that Rytr “generates reviews that would almost certainly be false for the users who copy the generated content and publish it online.”

Rytr -- which has both a free and paid version of its service -- also generates emails, blog posts, product descriptions, Google search ads and other written material, according to the complaint.

The FTC claimed that Rytr provided subscribers “with the means to generate written content for consumer reviews that is false and deceptive,” and that its practices were unfair because they likely injured consumers and weren't outweighed by benefits.

The case comes around five weeks after the FTC issued new regulations that ban businesses from purchasing phony reviews -- including ones generated by artificial intelligence.

Rytr agreed to settle the complaint by refraining from advertising or selling any review or testimonial generation service. The company didn't admit or deny the FTC's allegations.

Republican commissioners Melissa Holyoak and Andrew N. Ferguson dissented from the FTC's decision to prosecute Rytr.

Ferguson argued in a statement joined by Holyoak that offering a tool that could facilitate deception doesn't in itself violate the FTC Act.

“Treating as categorically illegal a generative AI tool merely because of the possibility that someone might use it for fraud is inconsistent with our precedents and common sense,” he wrote. “And it threatens to turn honest innovators into lawbreakers and risks strangling a potentially revolutionary technology in its cradle.”

He added that Rytr's tool offers benefits to consumers by helping them save time. 

“Writing a succinct and thoughtful review can be difficult and time-consuming, and a tool that produces a well-written first draft of a review based on some keyword inputs can make the task much more accessible,” he wrote.

Holyoak raised similar issues in her dissent, which was joined by Ferguson.

She noted that the FTC lacked evidence that any fake reviews created by Rytr were posted online, adding that the settlement “goes too far in its ban on Rytr’s providing any review or testimonial service.”

“The complaint alleges that Rytr’s service was potentially misused by users to create misleading reviews -- not that the neutral service itself is a source of harm,” she wrote. “Banning products that have useful features but have the potential to be misused is not consistent with the Commission’s unfairness authority.”