AI Briefing: FTC and Congress put pressure on AI giants as GenAI misinformation spreads
By Marty Swant
Regulators looking into the dangers of AI are turning up the heat. Last week, the Federal Trade Commission launched a new inquiry into five major AI players to investigate how their investments and partnerships impact competition.
Along with new inquiries for Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft, the FTC also is investigating Anthropic and OpenAI. Both startups have received multi-billion-dollar investments from the tech giants. As part of the investigation, the FTC is looking for information about investment and partnership agreements, their rationale and the implications for competition, sales, resources and product rollouts.
During a virtual “Tech Summit” last Thursday, FTC chair Lina Kahn said the agency will look at whether tech giants are using their power to trick the public, and whether the AI investments allow giants to “exert undue influence or gain privileged access” to secure an advantage across the AI sector. Kahn also said the FTC will use findings from previous investigations to guide their strategy, including looking “upstream” at other companies that might be violating U.S. laws. (In 2020, the agency launched a similar inquiry to see if acquisitions by six tech giants harmed competition.)
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Source:: Digiday
