Incident: A 98 percent claim without its setting

Module 17 · Incident file · About 30 minutes

What happened

On 28 April 2025 the US Federal Trade Commission announced a proposed order against Workado, LLC ("FTC Order Requires Workado to Back Up Artificial Intelligence Detection Claims"). Workado sells an AI Content Detector, a tool meant to tell whether a piece of text was written by a person or by AI. The order, the FTC wrote, "settles allegations that Workado promoted its AI Content Detector as "98 percent" accurate".

The FTC's complaint gave a second number: "independent testing showed the accuracy rate on general-purpose content was just 53 percent". Workado had said the tool was built on a wide range of material, including blog posts and Wikipedia entries. The FTC alleged instead that "the AI model powering the AI Content Detector was only trained or fine-tuned to effectively classify academic content." Chris Mufarrige, Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, said the product "did no better than a coin toss".

The order bars Workado from claiming how well such a product works unless the claim is not misleading and is backed by "competent and reliable evidence" when it is made. Workado must keep that evidence, email eligible customers about the settlement, and file compliance reports with the FTC one year after the order and each year for three more. The Commission voted 3-0, and approved the final order on 28 August 2025. These are the FTC's allegations and order terms as its press releases state them. This is not legal advice.