FTC Investigates AI-Powered Application’s Marketing Claims and Company Agrees to Terminate App

In a Closing Letter dated July 11, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) summarized its concerns about the accuracy of marketing materials for Calmara, an AI-powered application, to detect sexually-transmitted infections (STIs). The FTC stated that it had concerns about the quality of the data used to test and train the AI model, the small number of images used to assess the model's performance, the lack of independence of the authors of the study supporting the AI model, the model's accuracy for asymptomatic STIs, and the advertising claims that extended to ten or more conditions when the AI was trained to detect and assess only four STIs. The FTC notified the company, HeHealth, that it is unlawful to "make claims relating to the health benefits or safety features of a product without possessing and relying upon competent and reliable scientific evidence that has been conducted and evaluated in an objective manner by qualified persons and that is generally accepted in the profession to yield accurate and reliable results, to substantiate that the claim is true." According to the Closing Letter, the company is terminating the AI app, refunding monies, and removing all related advertising claims, as well as addressing privacy issues.