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The American regulator is sharing the enormous task of scrutinizing the activities of Microsoft, Nvidia and OpenAI. More precisely the DoJ (Department of Justice) and the Federal Trade Commission, which are questioning the major movements of recent months in the sector.
What is problematic is, among other things, the vagueness surrounding the merger between OpenAI and Microsoft. In particular, the investment of the latter in the former, of the order of, we learn, 13 billion dollars. The operating systems giant seems, since then, to enjoy a decisive influence on OpenAI.
The DoJ and the FTC are questioning possible antitrust practices
To the point of having succeeded in imposing the return of Sam Altman at its head, ousted in haste by the board of directors. All this against a backdrop of accusations related to the increasingly commercial orientation of OpenAI. Another major firm in the crosshairs: Nvidia
The capitalization of the graphics chip manufacturer continues to explode as the founder has recently established itself as the largest manufacturer of AI chips in the world. But the growing place that these actors are taking is worrying at the highest summit of the federal state, which has since been trying to delimit their power before it is too late.
We note that an FTC investigation has also directly targeted OpenAI since 2023. The firm is, among other things, ordered to communicate complaints from its users due to erroneous or misleading information generated by its models. But also to explain the constitution of the dataset necessary for training their LLMs.
Or even on the totally false “hallucinatory” answers that the cat can still sometimes give. The FTC has also been interested in recent months in the same efforts on the side of Alphabet, Amazon and Anthropic (in addition to OpenAI and Microsoft) with, note our colleagues at Usine Digitale, injunctions.
In reality, only Nvidia had slipped through the cracks until now. Except for the recent refusal to allow the firm to conclude the acquisition of ARM from the Japanese giant SoftBank. Another object of inquisition: the rapprochement between Microsoft and the startup Inflection AI at the end of a 650 million euro licensing agreement to use its generative AI models in its products.
All this should make it possible, the regulator believes, to prevent opportunities from disappearing too quickly for other players who would like to launch themselves into this particularly dynamic sector. A sector whose popularity is not likely to decline in the coming years, quite the contrary.
- DoJ and FTC look into OpenAI, Microsoft and Nvidia – and possible antitrust practices.
- The regulator seeks under the Biden administration to limit the current and future power of a handful of people ;leading AI players.
- A tactic that could give some breathing room to other players and new entrants, while AI progress is constantly accelerating.
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