Artificial intelligence company Clarifai said this month it had deleted 3 million OkCupid user photos and facial-recognition models trained on them after the US Federal Trade Commission settled with the dating site over privacy violations.

OkCupid settled with the FTC in late March for providing photos and demographic data to train Clarifai's facial-recognition models in 2014, but the settlement drew criticism from some Democrats who alleged it did not go far enough.

The incident reflects how AI has become a political flashpoint ahead of US congressional elections, as President Donald Trump's administration seeks to promote American dominance in the industry.

Clarifai certified to the FTC on April 7 that it had deleted the data, according to a document seen by Reuters.

Clarifai confirms deletion amid political pressure

The company also told the office of US Representative Lori Trahan on April 16 that it had deleted any models trained on the data and had not shared the data with third parties, her office said.

The Democrat from Massachusetts called the confirmation “a step in the right direction," but said "the FTC should have never settled for less in the first place."

"Misconduct by AI companies should never go unnoticed or unanswered, and I'll continue plugging gaps left by this partisan FTC to ensure Americans' privacy and safety comes first," Trahan said in a statement.

However, FTC spokesperson Joe Simonson said: "This is a completely baseless issue manufactured by Democrats who do nothing but lie for a living."

The FTC does not have authority to issue penalties for the violations alleged in the case. Clarifai, which received the data after requesting it from OkCupid, was not accused of any wrongdoing.

Clarifai did not respond to requests for comment on how many models were deleted or how long they were in use.

How OKCupid data fueled AI training

The Delaware-based company offers facial-recognition technology that identifies individuals in images and video, and can analyze age, race and gender, according to its website. The company has contracted with the US military, and has received investments from Nvidia and others.

Clarifai's founder sought the data in 2014, when some OkCupid executives were Clarifai investors, according to court documents.

"We're collecting data now and just realized that OKCupid must have a HUGE amount of awesome data for this," Clarifai founder Matthew Zeiler wrote in an email to OkCupid co-founder Maxwell Krohn.

The data transfer breached OkCupid's privacy policy and a federal law against deceptive business practices, the FTC said. OkCupid and Match Group , which runs Tinder and other online dating platforms, agreed not to misrepresent their privacy policies under the settlement.

The agency opened the probe after a New York Times article in 2019, during the first Trump administration.

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