The AI Boom and Potential Antitrust Breaches

An investigation is currently underway by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and US Department of justice, according to a reporter at Reuters.

The scrutiny has fallen on major AI businesses, such as OpenAI, Nvidia, and Microsoft, over their potential to have violated antitrust laws.

Nvidia (soon to be overseen by the DOJ) is a highlighted case, with its pivotal role in the upcoming age of AI, where it dominates the market in chip making necessary for artificial intelligence building, producing, up to 80% of chips on the market. This high position–like the other postmodern tech giants–has garnered both good and bad attention for various reasons. 

The FTC will be undertaking the investigations into Microsoft and OpenAI.

Microsoft has rebuked any claims of wrongdoing, with a company spokesman relating to The Hill: 

“Our agreements with Inflection gave us the opportunity to recruit individuals at Inflection AI and build a team capable of accelerating Microsoft Copilot, while enabling Inflection to continue pursuing its independent business and ambition as an AI studio,” said the spokesperson. “We take our legal obligations to report transactions under the HSR Act seriously and are confident that we have complied with those obligations.”

Just days before the investigations were announced, OpenAI employees had released a letter addressing their company and industry at large. The expressed worries and vexation over a lack of oversight and trust when it comes to working with/using artificial intelligence.

“AI companies have strong financial incentives to avoid effective oversight, and we do not believe bespoke structures of corporate governance are sufficient to change this,” the employees wrote, adding that the companies “currently have only weak obligations to share some of this information with governments, and none with civil society. We do not think they can all be relied upon to share it voluntarily.”

These initiatives are the greatest regulatory action in the world of AI tech. Some believe AI should spread vastly; others hope for its controlled-use. In either case, each user wants to put trust into the software they’re using.

Telecoms Hope to Block Biden’s Renewed Net Neutrality

Numerous U.S. telecommunications industry groups recently filed lawsuits against the Biden Administration’s reinstatement of net neutrality rules. If not blocked, the rules will take effect on July 22.

In April, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) averted to again oversee broadband internet through the net neutrality rules set up in 2015 during the Obama administration. The decision was reversed following the appointment of the Trump administration.

Groups, such as Comcast, AT&T and Verizon (among others) were some of the groups to seek legal challenges against the decision.

With the rules back in place, internet service providers (ISPs) will be restricted from blocking content on their servers or engaging in paid prioritization of content.

The decision would give the FCC new ways to deny foreign-owned entities from running broadband networks in the U.S. that may be a threat to national security.

In Other News

• AI WWDC Event on Its Way; What Will Apple Showcase?

• The Apple Watch is Already Genius, But About to Get Even Better

• SpaceX Launches Largest Rocket Ever; Does It Have What It Takes To Travel To Mars?

Thanks for reading this week’s CodeLetter. Same time next week ☮️ .