AI Can Rip You Off. Here's How California Lawmakers Want to Stop Price Discrimination
AI Can Rip You Off. Here's How California Lawmakers Want to Stop Price Discrimination
AI can help businesses charge you more based on how it evaluates your personal history and desires. California lawmakers want to end that price discrimination
In recent weeks [California lawmakers] introduced five bills to address the issue, making predictive pricing based on a customer’s personal information one of the most popular tech policy concerns in the Legislature this session.
Ride-sharing apps, travel companies, and retail giants such as Staples, Target, and reportedly Amazon have engaged in the practice, which can set different prices for customers based on factors including internet browsing data or where they live. In one recent example published by SFGATE, a person in the Bay Area was offered a hotel room for $500 more than people in less affluent areas.
The pricing isn’t based on supply or demand. It’s based on predictions made about your eagerness and desires, said researcher Justin Kloczko. In one recent instance he found that Lyft charged his wife $5 more than him for the same ride. Kloczko works at Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group that cosponsored one of the bills.
The package of bills proposed by California lawmakers to regulate AI responds to a call by Speaker Robert Rivas following elections last fall to focus on measures to address the cost of living.
This is my worry about AI and privacy. Price discrimintion. Companies are going to want to integrate the demand curve rather then choose a price point where supply and deman equal. Tons of money here and tons of personal information to use against you.
I wonder whether that also exposes them to opportunities to fuck with them too, though. Maybe data poisoning practices in the pursuit of discounts