US federal regulators have reached an agreement that allows them to move forward with antitrust investigations into the dominant roles that Microsoft, OpenAI, and Nvidia play in the artificial intelligence industry—a sign of hope for citizens around the world after the increase in power these companies have accumulated in recent years.
The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission closed the agreement last week, and it is expected to be completed in the coming days, as we read in The New York Times.
According to the agreement, the Department of Justice will be responsible for investigating whether the behavior of Nvidia, the largest manufacturer of artificial intelligence chips, has violated antitrust laws.
On the other hand, the F.T.C. will play the main role in examining OpenAI’s conduct, which includes the chatbot ChatGPT, and Microsoft, which has invested $13 billion in OpenAI and has made agreements with other artificial intelligence companies.
A necessary investigation: governments must regulate AI before it dominates us
The agreement highlights the increased scrutiny by the Department of Justice and the F.T.C. of Artificial Intelligence, a rapidly advancing technology that has the potential to disrupt jobs, information, and people’s lives.
Both agencies have been at the forefront of the Biden administration’s efforts to curb the power of the largest technology companies. Following a similar agreement in 2019, the government investigated Google, Apple, Amazon, and Meta and has since sued each for antitrust violations.
For months, Nvidia, Microsoft, and OpenAI largely escaped the weight of regulatory scrutiny from the Biden administration. But that began to change when generative artificial intelligence, capable of producing text, photos, videos, and audio similar to humans, burst onto the scene in late 2022 and created a frenzy in the industry.
In July, the Federal Trade Commission opened an investigation to determine if OpenAI had harmed consumers with its data collection. In January, the FTC also launched a broad investigation into strategic partnerships between tech giants and new Artificial Intelligence companies, including Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI and Google and Amazon’s investments in Anthropic, another young Artificial Intelligence company.
However, the United States is lagging behind Europe in the regulation of artificial intelligence. European Union officials agreed last year on historic rules to regulate this rapidly evolving technology, focusing on the riskiest ways it can be used.
Nvidia, OpenAI, and Microsoft have been in the spotlight as some of the biggest winners of the artificial intelligence boom, raising questions about their dominance.
