Microsoft, NVIDIA, and OpenAI are now facing antitrust investigations from the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice over their recent AI deals.
Sources told The New York Times that the two agencies have struck a deal to crack down on tech giants influencing the AI industry and determine whether the companies violated any monopoly laws.
The investigation is believed to be a follow-up of an earlier study the FTC announced earlier in January on leading AI firms, including Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI.
The probes came shortly after NVIDIA replaced Apple as the second-most valuable company in the US as it reached past the $3 trillion market cap mark.
FTC Opens Probe on 'Acquihire' Allegations
A subsequent report from The Wall Street Journal indicated that the FTC is focused primarily on Microsoft's hiring of Inflection's employees, including its co-founder, and its potential violations.
One of which was determining whether the companies used "acquihire" strategies, or scooping up other firms' employees without fully acquiring the company to avoid reporting it to the FTC.
FTC, DOJ Ramps Up Regulatory Crack Down on Tech Giants
The regulatory investigations followed as the FTC and the DOJ increased efforts to crack down on monopolies in the industry since their first collaborated investigation in 2019.
With increasing safety concerns about the industry's latest products, the investigations are expected to provide the agencies a better grasp of reining the growing AI firms.
It can be remembered that there are still no standardized AI laws in the US that can reduce the impacts of AI on the job market, market competition, and consumer safety.
Most initiatives remain within the companies' policies which are often discarded as their AI models still exhibit similar issues despite the promises.
A study from the Center for Countering Digital Hate earlier in March even noted several instances of OpenAI's and Microsoft's chatbots generating political misinformation months after the two promised to improve their technology.
