AI-washing
Overstating or fabricating an AI capability in marketing or disclosures, claiming a system does something with artificial intelligence that it does not actually do. The gap between the AI claim and the real capability is what regulators target, as the FTC's DoNotPay action and the SEC's first AI-washing settlements (SEC, 2024) both show.
Defined in 4 GAGE programs, which carry 4 distinct definitions of it. The wording above is taught in AI Governance: Applied Mastery.
How each discipline defines it
The same term does different work depending on who is using it. These are the definitions as each program teaches them, unedited.
Describing a product or service as using artificial intelligence or machine learning capabilities it does not actually have, or exaggerating the sophistication of the AI it does use, in marketing, filings, or public statements. The term entered regulatory use through the SEC's March 2024 enforcement actions and has since been used by other regulators and journalists to describe the same pattern.
Overstating or fabricating an AI capability in marketing or disclosures, claiming a system does something with artificial intelligence that it does not actually do. The gap between the AI claim and the real capability is what regulators target, as the FTC's DoNotPay action and the SEC's first AI-washing settlements (SEC, 2024) both show.
False, overstated, or materially incomplete public claims about a company's use of AI; an oversight failure exposing the company to SEC enforcement and securities claims, controlled at the board level by a verification step before claims are released.
Marketing ordinary software, or ordinary human labor, as artificial intelligence. The reason a buyer must verify what a vendor's "AI" actually is rather than trusting the label. The Builder.ai collapse is the extreme case.
Where it is taught
The exact lessons this term appears in. The first 7 topics of every program are free with a free account.
- Board-Level AI Governance · Bonus: AI Leadership Accelerator, AI Literacy & Professional Conduct
- Answering a regulator's letter: responding with documents, not assurances, anchored to real enforcement patterns · The EU AI Act: The Executive Map, AI Governance: Applied Mastery
- Build vs Buy vs Partner · Technology, Platforms and Vendors, Business AI Transformation
Terms it appears with
Not an alphabetical neighbourhood: these are the terms taught in the same lessons, ranked by how often they appear together.