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    U.S. antitrust enforcers will investigate leading AI companies Microsoft, Nvidia and OpenAI

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments874 Views
    The Federal Trade Commission building is seen, Jan. 28, 2015, in Washington. U.S. antitrust enforcers have decided to investigate the roles Microsoft, Nvidia and OpenAI have played in the artificial intelligence boom, according to people familiar with the pending actions. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

    By Matt O'Brien

    --

    U.S. antitrust enforcers have decided to investigate the roles Microsoft, Nvidia and OpenAI have played in the artificial intelligence boom, according to people familiar with the pending actions.

    The Department of Justice will launch an investigation of chipmaker Nvidia, while the Federal Trade Commission will scrutinize close business partners Microsoft and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, according to two people who were not authorized to publicly discuss details of the investigations and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

    Nvidia and OpenAI declined to comment Thursday. Microsoft didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

    The New York Times was first to report Thursday on a deal between antitrust regulators at the two agencies.

    Emboldened by President Joe Biden's push for tougher scrutiny of Big Tech's business practices, federal officials have signaled for more than a year that they've been watching out for monopolistic behavior in the rapidly advancing industry of chatbots and other generative AI products that can produce human-like text, imagery and sound.

    Lina Khan, chair of the FTC, said in January that the agency would scrutinize deals that "enable dominant firms to exert undue influence or gain privileged access in ways that could undermine fair competition."

    The FTC said at the time it was opening an inquiry into the relationships between leading artificial intelligence startups such as OpenAI and Anthropic and cloud computing providers such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft that have invested billions of dollars into them.

    Microsoft's relationship with OpenAI has been particularly close, supplying the smaller San Francisco company with the vast computing resources needed to train generative AI systems like ChatGPT.

    The entire AI industry has also relied heavily on Nvidia's specialized semiconductors to power AI applications. Demand for its AI chips has led Nvidia's stock to soar, surpassing $3 trillion in market value Wednesday and making it one of the most valuable companies in the S&P 500.

    Matt O'Brien is an AP technology writer. AP writer Michael Balsamo contributed to this report.

    Tags:Department of JusticeFederal Trade CommissionMicrosoftNVIDIAOpenAI



    Ex-OpenAI engineer who raised legal concerns about the technology he helped build has died

    Saturday, December 21, 2024
    Suchir Balaji poses for a photo in Hawaii in 2018. Balaji was a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who died in November 2024. (Balaji Ramamurthy via AP)

    Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who helped train the artificial intelligence systems behind ChatGPT and later said he believed those practices violated copyright law, has died, according to his parents and San Francisco officials. He was 26.

    Balaji worked at OpenAI for nearly four years before quitting in August. He was well-regarded by colleagues at the San Francisco company, where a co-founder this week called him one of OpenAI's strongest contributors who was essential to developing some of its products.

    "We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news and our hearts go out to Suchir's loved ones during this difficult time," said a statement from OpenAI.

    Balaji was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on Nov. 26 in what police said "appeared to be a suicide. No evidence of foul play was found during the initial investigation." The city's chief medical examiner's office confirmed the manner of death to be suicide.

    His parents Poornima Ramarao and Balaji Ramamurthy said they are still seeking answers, describing their son as a "happy, smart and brave young man" who loved to hike and recently returned from a trip with friends.

    Balaji grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and first arrived at the fledgling AI research lab for a 2018 summer internship while studying computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. He returned a few years later to work at OpenAI, where one of his first projects, called WebGPT, helped pave the way for ChatGPT.

    "Suchir's contributions to this project were essential, and it wouldn't have succeeded without him," said OpenAI co-founder John Schulman in a social media post memorializing Balaji. Schulman, who recruited Balaji to his team, said what... Read More

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