Wyden Wants AI Firms to Explain Role in Domestic Spying

A US lawmaker is pressing artificial intelligence companies to clarify whether they enable government customers to analyze Americans’ sensitive personal data for domestic surveillance purposes.

The request from US Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, asks leading AI firms to explain if their policies contractually prohibit government agencies from using their services to conduct hacking operations against Americans or to analyze commercial web browsing data. It also asks them to explain whether their AI is used to identify new targets for domestic surveillance, among other purposes.

The letter to the chief executive officers of Alphabet Inc.’s Google, ...