The following statement can be attributed to George Rakis, Executive Director for NextGen Competition (nextgencomp.tech):

We’ve been sounding the alarm about Big Tech’s growing influence over generative AI startups for over a year. The release of today’s FTC report is a recognition that Amazon, Microsoft, and Google have each worked to exert their influence over startups like OpenAI and Anthropic through years-long pseudo-merger, talent poaching, and more. They’ve attempted to absorb their employees and intellectual property by taking larger ownership stakes and holding cloud computing resources hostage. The findings from this ongoing investigation highlight that AI development concentrated within a small group of powerful corporations undermines market competition and poses serious risks to consumer rights, data privacy, and the ethical advancement of AI technologies.

We strongly encourage the incoming administration to keep up the pressure on this important issue to ensure that the AI industry remains robust, competitive, and innovative, and we commend Chair Khan for her work to accomplish this feat.

About NextGen Competition

Our mission is to support a robust and competitive technology ecosystem by opposing anti-competitive business practices and promoting greater industry accountability. Specifically, we oppose consolidation in the industry that undermines worker protections and employer accountability, threatens data privacy and security, encourages market concentration, and limits consumer choice. NextGen Competition intends to work with a broad coalition of unions and public interest partners as it seeks to oppose anti-competitive business practices.