alt Hacker NewsFTC is investigating OpenAI, Anthropic and other AI companies over product risks
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If the FTC weren't investigating three of the largest and fastest growing companies in the country for one thing or another, it would be kinda surprising to me.
They just need to hire the right lobbyists, get a meeting at the White House, agree on the terms and call it a settlement.
And if the FTC chair is not agreeable, they will be threatened by said lobbyists and eventually be fired.
If this sounds far-fetched, it is exactly what happened to Gail Slater, then-head of the DOJ's antitrust division and her deputies in 2025 over HPE’s bid to acquire Juniper.
Wall Street Journal archive link: https://archive.ph/IMer9
Looks like their "Oops! we can't control our dog" PR campaign has backfired.
"Product risks"? The hell? How about cartel like behavior trying to stifle their competition.
Hey, that's good news. I was hoping it would be the FBI, but the FTC will do.
FTC is still mostly not compromised by industry sleeper agents. FBI is still independent also.
CAISI NIST is very compromised by EA sleeper agents. very luckily they have no law enforcement role.
Just a way to pretend like they're doing anything in front of the public. What's there to investigate? Risks are pretty wide open. Crimes have been committed and admitted to.
What a shame that the focus in the article seems to be on "winning." Seems like winning comes first and safety comes second, and the only question is how far apart they are. That's not surprising, but also not encouraging.
Do we really think that FTC under this administration, which is in bed with top tech billionaires giving gifts for inauguration will do anything against them?
Let's not kid ourselves.
Cool free marketing
Imagine if a car company like Ford or Toyota came out and said their new cars are kind of out of control and they needed special indemnities and protection from liabilities if they want to keep selling cars.
All before the midterms: FTC "investigations", 2500 US troops withdrawn from Iraq, SR-71 supposedly reentering service.
What about the price of gas?
They should be investigating them because of massively selling below cost price.
How is this a fair, level, playing field, U.S.? Making a large pile of money to put millions of people out of a job, it warrants some investigations!
Did a 6(b) response once and the slow part wasn't the documents, it was agreeing internally on what counted as a "safety incident.
FTC starting the process of immunizing OpenAI, Anthropic, and a few other well-connected AI companies from liabilities or future prosecutions for any of their fully premeditated actions.
If only these companies had the means to make political donations to make his all go away. Oh wait, they do and it’s election season!
"Nice Ai Lab you have here. Would be a shame if anything happened to it."
Trump Jr. added as a paid advisor to one, a Kushner to another, and gone are the risks.
"Convince us that they are dangerous or you will be fined"
This is why they're all swinging on Trump's nuts.
When Trump is gone they'll forget about him. If we elect someone far-left next they'll suddenly be mega-woke. Watch.
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These challenges can easily be solved by establishing a Board of SI.
My prediction: nothing will come of this, and these investigations will either be concluded favorably or dropped no less than six months after the midterms.
There's only one voice that matters in this administration, and he has already made it quite clear that he both does not consider AI to be an issue, and he is more than happy to trample over his agencies to enforce his opinion.