October 13, 2026
A New Brief Urges State Enforcers and Private Plaintiffs to Use Existing Law Against Chatbots That Give Wrong Answers, Trap Customers in “Doom Loops,” or Fail to Fix Problems.
October 13, 2026 | NEW YORK, NY — Companies are replacing human customer service workers with AI chatbots, and many of the ways they do it may already be illegal, according to a new joint issue brief from Columbia Law School’s Center for Law and the Economy and Protect Borrowers. The authors, Stephanie T. Nguyen, former chief technologist of the Federal Trade Commission, and Adam Teitelbaum, former director of the Office of Consumer Protection at the D.C. Attorney General’s office, argue that enforcers do not need to wait for Congress to protect families and honest businesses. The laws on the books already reach these practices.