Cleary Gottlieb’s AI and enforcement team has broad experience advising clients across a range of emerging enforcement risks related to artificial intelligence, including new federal and state investigative efforts and related compliance assessments.

The explosive growth of artificial intelligence is fueling a new wave of legal and regulatory risk, as enforcement authorities across the globe turn their attention to how companies build, deploy, and govern AI systems. Federal agencies, state regulators, and international authorities are sharpening their focus on AI-related risks, and companies deploying or affected by AI systems face a rapidly evolving enforcement landscape.

At the intersection of cutting-edge technology and high-stakes enforcement, Cleary’s AI enforcement and investigations team brings deep experience across regulatory investigations, government inquiries, and compliance strategy to help clients navigate these challenges with confidence.

Anchored by formidable litigators and a deep bench of former federal prosecutors, we offer a rare combination: decades of enforcement experience and genuine fluency in the transformative technologies driving today’s regulatory policies.

Key Areas of Enforcement Risk

Recognized by Chambers for having “an outrageously strong team of white-collar lawyers,” we regularly advise clients across the full range of risks arising from heightened government enforcement around AI, including:

  • National security and export controls. BIS, CFIUS, and DOJ are expanding their reach over AI technologies with potential national security implications, escalating export enforcement, foreign investment review, outbound investment restrictions, and economic espionage prosecutions.
  • Financial services and market integrity. DOJ, the SEC, and CFTC are scrutinizing AI applications in trading, portfolio management, and corporate disclosures, with particular attention to AI-generated investment recommendations, algorithmic market manipulation, and the adequacy of compliance controls around automated systems.
  • Consumer protection and algorithmic bias. The FTC, CFPB, EEOC, and state attorneys general are actively pursuing companies whose AI systems produce deceptive, discriminatory, or unfair outcomes—from biased lending and hiring algorithms to opaque automated decision-making in housing and insurance.
  • AI-enabled fraud and AI-washing. Federal and state regulators are targeting the use of AI to facilitate deceptive marketing, manipulative user interfaces, and fraudulent schemes, with the FTC leading a wave of enforcement actions.
  • State regulation. States are rapidly proposing and enacting AI-specific legislation imposing new transparency and accountability requirements. We advise clients on these different state legal regimes and their implications, including on business adoption of AI, AI infrastructure and data centers, and compliance with state government regulation of AI.
  • EU AI enforcement. As AI regulatory regimes become an increasing focus across the EU, we advise our clients across a variety of areas, including Digital Markets Act (DMA) compliance, investigations, and enforcement for gatekeepers and digital market participants, on EU consumer protection issues arising from AI-driven algorithmic pricing, on AI Act compliance, and on the broader intersection of AI with EU data protection, platform regulation, and competition enforcement.

Our Approach

We work with clients across the full enforcement lifecycle, from proactive risk assessment and governance design to internal investigations, government inquiries, and enforcement defense. We also help boards and senior leadership understand their exposure, develop defensible AI policies, and respond strategically when regulators act.