US House lawmakers probe Delta Air Lines on use of AI in ticket pricing (www.reuters.com)

Two dozen House Democrats sent a letter to Delta CEO Ed Bastian asking whether the airline will use generative AI to set individualized ticket prices, demanding disclosure about any plans to deploy “surveillance‑based price discrimination.” The probe follows Delta’s prior statements that it will roll out AI-based revenue management across about 20% of its domestic network by end‑2025 in partnership with pricing startup Fetcherr, and lawmakers’ concern that personal data or web behavior (for example, visiting a funeral home website) could be used to time fare increases. Delta has denied it uses or plans to use fare products that target customers with individualized offers; regulators including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (note: article says Sean Duffy—actual current Sec. is Buttigieg; Reuters quoted Duffy) have signaled they would investigate any such practices. Democratic members have also introduced legislation to ban AI pricing based on personal data. The exchange highlights key technical and policy tensions for the AI/ML community: traditional dynamic pricing uses aggregated signals (demand, fuel costs, competition), while generative or ML-driven systems can enable more granular segmentation or even per‑user personalization if trained on individual features. Lawmakers are asking for transparency about Guardrails — what inputs models use, how they’re trained, whether outputs amount to individualized offers, and what auditability and explainability mechanisms exist to prevent discriminatory or exploitative outcomes. The case underscores growing calls for standards on data minimization, model audits, documentation of features and objectives, and regulatory oversight of automated pricing systems.