Hawley draws hard line on AI giants: ‘Absolutely no way’ on antitrust exemptions
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Missouri U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley says he will not support giving major artificial intelligence companies exemptions from federal antitrust laws so they can coordinate with one another on AI safety.
“Absolutely not,” Hawley said Tuesday. “There is no world in which I will consent to giving the most powerful companies in the history of the world — a small group of three or four of them — antitrust exemptions from our laws so that they can, what, collude together?”
The issue has gained attention as some leading AI companies warn that increasingly powerful systems could pose serious safety risks and say competitors may need to work together to slow or limit development.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has called for government involvement to make that type of coordination possible. OpenAI has also sought clarity over whether companies working together to slow AI development could violate antitrust laws.
Hawley argues an exemption could instead allow a handful of already-powerful technology companies to strengthen their control over the AI industry.
His comments come as Hawley separately investigates OpenAI over a July incident involving its AI systems and the AI company Hugging Face.
