Lawmakers concerned over Google's plan to acquire AI models from Spirit Airlines data

Reported by The Hill. The paragraphs below are the opening of that article, reproduced word for word — not a summary, and not the whole piece.

A bipartisan group of dozens of lawmakers led by Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is concerned over Google’s plan to acquire Spirit Airlines data to train its AI models.

A letter from the group , sent to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Spirit CEO Dave Davis, took issue with a proposed $10 million sale of “Spirit Airlines’ internal data to Google for the purpose of training artificial intelligence systems,” which the lawmakers said they believed could violate “the privacy and confidentiality of thousands of current and former Spirit employees.”

The group of 119 lawmakers from both chambers continued the sale is “uncharted territory” as it would involve “approximately 100 million emails, 500 million Microsoft Teams messages, employee records, timecard records, payroll and tax information, and employment contracts.”

“We are concerned that conventional de-identification safeguards may not be sufficient to protect employee privacy in the context of modern artificial intelligence,” the lawmakers wrote, citing a National Institute of Standards and Technology report that stated in certain circumstances, de-identified data could be re-identified with the use of AI.

Google received the letter and had no interest in receiving personal information, according to a source familiar with the matter, adding that any data received will be rigorously de-identified by an independent third party.

“Innovation cannot come at the expense of workers’ privacy, and no employee data should move until real, enforceable safeguards are in place,” Horsford said in a press release Thursday.