Mallow and Martin: The Rise of AI Spin
Exaggerating artificial intelligence’s capabilities—also known as AI washing—can pose serious risks for companies. Shook Class Action & Appellate Litigation Practice Group Co-Chair Michael Mallow and Associate Tory Martin discuss AI washing in an article in the Los Angeles chapter of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers’ ABTL Report titled “Washing Away the Truth: The Rise of AI Spin.”
In the article, Mallow and Martin said AI washing can come in many forms, from making false claims about AI usage or capability to overstating AI’s role. They said one example is in Amazon’s marketing of its Just Walk Out stores, in which the company claimed the stores use “computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning.”
“But Amazon neglected to mention that it hired over 1,000 workers in India to watch and label the videos,” they said. “The public criticized Amazon for AI washing since it never mentioned that its stores still required human intervention and analysis, not just ‘computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning.’”
Mallow and Martin said companies can look to “greenwashing”—making false or misleading statements about how environmentally friendly a company or product is—for lessons on how companies can avoid making mistakes with their AI marketing.
