The Federal Trade Commission is investigating how companies like Mastercard and JPMorgan Chase use AI and personal data to set different prices for people.

The FTC has requested information from eight firms offering "surveillance pricing" products that use consumer data.

The regulator aims to understand how algorithms and AI, combined with personal data such as location, demographics, and credit history, are used to categorize people and set targeted prices.

FTC chair Lina M Khan says that firms harvesting personal data might risk privacy and could exploit it to charge higher prices. The FTC's inquiry will expose this pricing ecosystem.