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FTC is investigating OpenAI, Anthropic and other AI companies over product risks

210 points · 160 comments · dgellow

  1. Cipater · · focus · HN ↗
    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: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.ph&#x2F;IMer9" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.ph&#x2F;IMer9

    1. paimapi · · focus · HN ↗
      there&#x27;s also regulatory capture where regulators get hired by these companies for six-to-seven figure jobs once they&#x27;re out

      <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;insights.som.yale.edu&#x2F;insights&#x2F;us-government-regulators-may-be-favoring-their-future-private-sector-employers" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;insights.som.yale.edu&#x2F;insights&#x2F;us-government-regulat...

      1. wins32767 · · focus · HN ↗
        That&#x27;s not an inherently bad practice. I&#x27;d much rather there be two way flow between industry and government than have people who have never tried to run a business doing regulation or those who have never worked in government trying to comply with regulations. Strong ethics rules and culture is the way you manage the downside, not bans.
        1. salawat · · focus · HN ↗
          The hell do you work where ethics culture exists in business? I gotta be looking in the wrong places, because all I ever see is lip service granted to ethics until they threaten the bottom line, then suddenly they disappear.
          1. Avicebron · · focus · HN ↗
            Well you see, you just frame your ethics that anything done in service to the bottom line is inherently good. Easy as, anyone complaining about rapacious behavior or a decrease in their quality of life is the real evil (tm)
            1. pixelatedindex · · focus · HN ↗
              &gt; you just frame your ethics that anything done in service to the bottom line is inherently good

              I thought that was the whole point of that Dodge vs Ford case which enshrined shareholder supremacy? I’m not saying that’s the best way or poor way to run a business, but the blanket application of this precedent seems sketch to me. But that means we need an admin that does trust busting too, so good luck with all that.

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