Delta has announced it plans to use AI technology to price airline tickets in a new program it calls “personalized pricing.” The airline is partnering with AI company Fetcherr, which already works closely with the airline industry, to use an AI “super analyst” that determines the cost of a seat.
How is that cost determined? Aware of privacy concerns, Delta Airlines said it in a statement it is planning a ticket price based on a person’s “personal information.” That denial comes after rivals Frontier and Spirt have been accused by Congress of using customers’ personal information to charge varying fees on the same flight.
Daniel Cochrane, who studies emerging technology at The Heritage Foundation, told American Family Radio you can expect a higher-priced ticket after AI informs Delta Air Lines your family is planning a nice, expensive vacation in Hawaii.
“We know we can estimate your income, you have a really high income, but you're underpaying essentially for the ticket price,” Cochrane, describing the ticket-pricing scenario, said. “Well, let's charge you a higher price.”
Beyond the issue of paying more for a seat, Cochrane told show host Jenna Ellis a higher ticket price may be the least of our worries as AI technology digs into our lives.
“We see a lot of other systems coming online that get integrated together could lead to something like a social credit score,” he warned.
Cochrane was referencing what China calls its Social Credit System. To better control a population of 1.4 billion, the authoritarian Chinese Communist Party uses smartphone apps to monitor people for compliance. A citizen caught complaining about President Xi, for example, could be blocked from public transportation or barred from buying groceries.
ChatGPT, the popular AI tool, told AFN for this story that China’s Social Credit System is “widely misunderstood” by Western countries. The credit system is a “broad framework for tracking trustworthiness,” GPT advised. It also denied Chinese citizens are punished from obtaining basic necessities if their names appear on what it calls a public “blacklist.”
Cochrane, however, says the Orwellian reach of AI technology is coming to the West, too.
“These systems are going to be able to track you around society, around the world, every website that you visit, every social media post you put online,” he warns. “And all of that could potentially feed into how your services are priced and what you get access to and what you don't.”
