US Antitrust Enforcers to Investigate Leading AI Companies
By Associated Press
(Associated Press)
U.S. antitrust enforcers have decided to investigate the roles Microsoft, Nvidia and OpenAI have played in the artificial intelligence boom, according to people familiar with the pending actions.
The Department of Justice will launch an investigation of chipmaker Nvidia, while the Federal Trade Commission will scrutinize close business partners Microsoft and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, according to two people who were not authorized to publicly discuss details of the investigations and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Nvidia and OpenAI declined to comment Thursday. Microsoft didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The New York Times was first to report Thursday on a deal between antitrust regulators at the two agencies.
Emboldened by President Joe Biden’s push for tougher scrutiny of Big Tech’s business practices, federal officials have signaled for more than a year that they’ve been watching out for monopolistic behavior in the rapidly advancing industry of chatbots and other generative AI products that can produce human-like text, imagery and sound.
Lina Khan, chair of the FTC, said in January that the agency would scrutinize deals that “enable dominant firms to exert undue influence or gain privileged access in ways that could undermine fair competition.”
The FTC said at the time it was opening an inquiry into the relationships between leading artificial intelligence startups such as OpenAI and Anthropic and cloud computing providers such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft that have invested billions of dollars into them.
Microsoft’s relationship with OpenAI has been particularly close, supplying the smaller San Francisco company with the vast computing resources needed to train generative AI systems like ChatGPT.
The entire AI industry has also relied heavily on Nvidia’s specialized semiconductors to power AI applications. Demand for its AI chips has led Nvidia’s stock to soar, surpassing $3 trillion in market value Wednesday and making it one of the most valuable companies in the S&P 500.
Low-value imports are losing their duty-free status in the U.S. this week as part of President Donald Trump's agenda for making the nation less dependent on foreign goods. A widely used customs exemption for international shipments worth $800 or less is set to end starting on Friday. Trump already ended the “de minimis” rule for inexpensive items sent from China and Hong Kong, but having to pay import taxes on small parcels from everywhere else likely will be a big change for some small businesses and online shoppers. Purchases that previously entered the U.S. without needing to clear customs will be subject to the origin country’s tariff rate, which can range from 10% to 50%.
Southwest Airlines will soon require plus-size travelers to pay for an extra seat in advance if they can't fit within the armrests of one seat. This change is part of several updates the airline is making. The new rule starts on Jan. 27, the same day Southwest begins assigning seats. Currently, plus-size passengers can pay for an extra seat in advance and later get a refund, or request a free extra seat at the airport. Under the new policy, refunds are still possible but not guaranteed. Southwest said in a statement it is updating policies to prepare for assigned seating next year.
Cracker Barrel is sticking with its new logo. For now. But the chain is also apologizing to fans who were angered when the change was announced last week.
Elon Musk on Monday targeted Apple and OpenAI in an antitrust lawsuit alleging that the iPhone maker and the ChatGPT maker are teaming up to thwart competition in artificial intelligence.
Hear from Gabino & Stephen Roche on Saphyre’s institutional AI platform that centralizes pre‑ and post‑trade data, redefining settlement speed and accuracy.
Elon Musk’s X has reached a tentative settlement with former employees of the company then known as Twitter who’d sued for $500 million in severance pay.
