FTC launches inquiry into AI deals such as Microsoft's OpenAI partnership

US antitrust enforcers are opening an investigation into the relationships between leading artificial intelligence startups such as ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and Anthropic and the tech giants that have invested billions of dollars into them. We're scrutinising whether these ties enable dominant firms to exert undue influence or gain privileged access in ways that could undermine fair competition, said Lina Khan, chair of the US Federal Trade Commission, in opening remarks at a Thursday AI forum. The FTC said it has issued compulsory orders to five companies requiring them to provide information regarding investments and partnerships. All of the leading cloud providers Amazon, Google and Microsoft have made huge investments into AI firms, most notably Microsoft's close partnership with OpenAI. Both Google and Amazon have made multibillion-dollar deals with Anthropic, another San Francisco-based AI startup formed by former leaders at OpenAI. The European Union and the United Kingdom hav Read The Rest at :