SlangEstablished
AI Washing
noun
Exaggerating, obscuring, or fabricating how a product or company uses AI to make it seem more advanced than it is.
The AI label on the box
You open a product page and see “AI-powered” next to a feature that looks like a search filter. Or an “AI assistant” turns out to be a menu of canned replies. That is what people mean by AI washing.
The name follows greenwashing, where a company overstates how environmentally friendly it is. A Forrester blog post from November 2018 already made that comparison. It warned that a company might call its technology AI simply because it runs an algorithm.
The demo said “AI-powered.” The help page said the feature picks from five saved templates. Textbook AI washing.
Original example written for this dictionary.
The complaint is about the gap between the claim and the product. Plain automation, described as plain automation, is not AI washing.
When the SEC used the term
On March 18, 2024, the SEC announced settled charges against two investment advisers, Delphia and Global Predictions, over false and misleading statements about their use of AI. The press release called the conduct “AI washing.” Gary Gensler, then chair of the SEC, said investment advisers should not tell the public they use an AI model when they do not.
The SEC said Delphia made false claims about using AI and machine learning with client data in its investment process. It said Global Predictions falsely called itself the first regulated AI financial advisor and misrepresented its platform as providing AI-driven forecasts.
Without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings, Delphia agreed to pay a civil penalty of $225,000, while Global Predictions agreed to pay $175,000.
A newer variant
Agent Washing applies the same complaint to products sold as AI agents. Because “AI” is used broadly and can cover many different technologies, disputes about AI washing usually come down to specifics: what the company claimed, and what the product can actually do.