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FTC Chair Warns AI Safety Deals Could Become Antitrust Shields
FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said the public should be “deeply suspicious” when AI companies seek new regulation while also asking for antitrust exemptions. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei proposed slowing the rate of frontier model capability gains, using embedded independent evaluators, industry safety coordination and...
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- FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said the public should be “deeply suspicious” when AI companies seek new regulation while also asking for antitrust exemptions.
- Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei proposed slowing the rate of frontier model capability gains, using embedded independent evaluators, industry safety coordination and international cooperation; he said a narrow waiver could...
- Antitrust specialists cited by Reuters said existing law can permit tightly limited cooperation to prevent catastrophic harm, but agreements over launches, output or capability limits could raise much sharper competit...
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openai.comCreate a landscape editorial hero image for this Studio Global article: What did FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson say about AI companies seeking antitrust exemptions while lobbying for new regulations, how does his p. Article summary: FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said “everyone should be deeply suspicious” when AI companies seek both new federal regulation and exemptions from antitrust law. His concern is that the combination can protect incumbents by. Topic tags: general, news, general web, user generated. Style: premium digital editorial illustration, source-backed research mood, clean composition, high detail, modern web publication hero. Use reference image context only for broad subject, composition, and topical grounding; do not copy the exact image. Avoid: logos, brand marks, copyrighted characters, real person likenesses, fake screenshots, UI text, readable text, watermarks, charts w
FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson’s warning about artificial-intelligence companies was aimed at a difficult policy boundary: safety collaboration may be valuable, but competitors cannot use it as a pretext to control a market.
Ferguson said that “everyone should be deeply suspicious” when AI companies ask Washington for both new regulations and exemptions from antitrust law. He was speaking in a personal capacity, Reuters reported. His concern was that regulatory requirements paired with permission for leading firms to coordinate could make it harder for smaller competitors to enter or expand. 3
Why Anthropic sought a narrow antitrust waiver
The debate followed Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s call to pace—rather than permanently halt—the advance of frontier AI models. His framework included three elements:
- Embedded independent evaluators with employee-like access to examine whether companies follow safety practices.
- Coordination among frontier AI companies on safety standards and limits on unchecked capability development.
- International cooperation on the associated risks.
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Amodei said government mediation or a narrowly drawn antitrust waiver could be necessary for some safety discussions among competitors. The request reflects an obvious legal tension: the same communications that help firms establish meaningful shared safeguards can also resemble coordination among rivals. 2
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The risk case behind the slowdown proposal
Amodei argued that safety measures need time to catch up with rapidly improving AI capabilities. He warned that, within six to 12 months, a swarm of AI agents could potentially take over the internet. That was a forecast and warning, not an established finding about current systems. 1
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His proposal came amid concern over AI misuse, including cyber operations, surveillance, fraud and weapons-related work, according to Reuters’ reporting. 2
Ferguson’s view: safety policy must not become a barrier to entry
Ferguson said President Trump—not the FTC—would set federal AI policy. His comments nevertheless signaled skepticism toward a model in which companies that favor new AI rules also seek special permission to coordinate with their chief rivals. 3
The competition concern is structural. Compliance rules can impose fixed costs that larger, better-funded firms can more easily absorb. If the same firms also receive latitude to coordinate on the pace or conditions of development, critics fear they could influence both the rules and the practical boundaries of competition.
Cohere co-founder Aidan Gomez criticized the idea as an attempt by a Silicon Valley “cartel” to entrench its power, arguing that a small group of commercially aligned companies should not write rules for technology with broad public consequences. 5
How OpenAI and Google figured into the discussion
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman supported the concept of independent evaluators with employee-like access, Reuters reported. OpenAI lobbyist Chris Lehane said OpenAI, Anthropic and Google had already been discussing AI safety for weeks, and said he did not believe those discussions required an antitrust waiver. 2
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Reuters identified Google as a participant in those safety discussions, but its reporting did not describe a separate public Google position on Amodei’s waiver request. 3
Why some antitrust experts say an exemption is unnecessary
Experts cited by Reuters argued that existing antitrust law can accommodate narrowly designed cooperation intended to avert catastrophic risks. They pointed to prior U.S. antitrust-agency guidance allowing companies to share cybersecurity information. 3
That distinction matters. Sharing threat information, testing methods or incident-response practices can be directed at preventing harm without necessarily dictating commercial behavior. By contrast, competitors agreeing to restrict output, delay launches or cap capabilities can raise far more serious antitrust issues because those actions may directly limit competition.
The unresolved question
The disagreement is not simply between AI safety and competition. It is about the design of safety coordination.
A narrowly focused arrangement that improves independent testing and incident response may fit within ordinary antitrust principles, according to the experts cited by Reuters. But a system that lets a handful of frontier labs jointly decide how quickly the sector can advance would invite Ferguson’s central concern: that safety governance could become a mechanism for incumbent companies to shape the market in their own favor. 3
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FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said the public should be “deeply suspicious” when AI companies seek new regulation while also asking for antitrust exemptions.
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FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said the public should be “deeply suspicious” when AI companies seek new regulation while also asking for antitrust exemptions. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei proposed slowing the rate of frontier model capability gains, using embedded independent evaluators, industry safety coordination and international cooperation; he said a narrow waiver could...
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Antitrust specialists cited by Reuters said existing law can permit tightly limited cooperation to prevent catastrophic harm, but agreements over launches, output or capability limits could raise much sharper competit...
Sources
apnews.comAnthropic CEO Dario Amodei says AI industry needs to give safety ...
theglobeandmail.comAI firms’ calls for co-ordinated slowdown amounts to ‘cartel’ behaviour, Cohere CEO says