On Wednesday, July 23, the White House released an action plan outlining 90 federal policy actions the administration will take to win the artificial intelligence (AI) race and “usher in a new golden age of human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security for the American people.” The plan contains a series of instructions to different agencies, including two to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that could mean changes to the agency’s deception program when it comes to AI-related marketing claims.

Issued pursuant to President Trump’s January 23 Executive Order, the AI Action Plan leans heavily on the importance of deregulation to accelerate AI innovation. To that end, it specifically directs the FTC to:

1. Review all investigations initiated under the previous administration to “ensure that they do not advance theories of liability that unduly burden AI innovation”; and
2. Review all FTC orders and “seek to modify or set-aside any that unduly burden AI innovation.”

Although these and the other directives in the plan are suggestions, not orders, to date the Trump/Vance FTC has strictly complied with administration recommendations. Accordingly, it seems likely the agency will kick off a comprehensive review of AI-related investigations and orders soon.

It’s unclear exactly what that review will look like or what the results will be. Most actions involving AI, including those that were part of the FTC’s September 2024 Operation AI Comply sweep, have targeted companies making false or deceptive claims about the use of AI in their products or services. For example, when it came to the AI Comply cases, three of the four cases involved business opportunity scams the FTC alleged falsely claimed they used AI to help people earn more money, faster. 

At the time of the sweep, FTC staff issued business guidance underscoring that these AI-related cases simply reinforced longstanding basic advertising principles. That is, “A lie in robot’s clothing is still a lie: [when it comes to AI,] the same old advertising principles apply.”

It could be that the current FTC agrees, and nothing changes. After all, just one week after the AI Action Plan was released, the FTC announced a settlement with FBA Machine, one of the companies it sued as part of Operation AI Comply. However, it's probably an overread to take the FBA Machine announcement as much of a signal in any direction. Based on the signature dates, the settlement was in the works months before the AI Action Plan was announced. And the press release leaves the question of what the current leadership is thinking about AI wide open, vaguely describing the order provision prohibiting AI-related misrepresentations as banning “the specific misrepresentations alleged in the complaint.” 

We'll be monitoring for further developments. Between the directives in the AI Action Plan and SpyFone’s July 18 petition to set aside its information security order, we could be looking at a potentially tumultuous time for what we thought were settled FTC orders and principles.