AI’s hype and antitrust problem is coming under scrutiny
The AI sector is plagued by a lack of competition and a lot of deceit—or at least that’s one way to interpret the latest flurry of actions taken in Washington.
The actions—from antitrust investigations to accusations of straight-up lying—represent an effort to hold the AI industry’s hype to account in the final months before the Federal Trade Commission’s chair, Lina Khan, is replaced when Donald Trump takes office.
But while the FTC looks to have a far smoother transition of leadership ahead than most other federal agencies, at least some of Trump’s frustrations with Big Tech could send antitrust efforts in a distinctly new direction. Read the full story.
—James O’Donnell
This story is from The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter giving you the inside track on all things happening in the fascinating field of AI. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Monday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Google has built a powerful new quantum computing chip
But it doesn’t have any real-world applications—yet. (Bloomberg $)
+ It takes five minutes to solve a problem that a traditional supercomputer could not master in 10 septillion years. (NYT $)
+ It’s a challenge the quantum field has been trying to crack for decades. (The Guardian)
+ We covered the work when it was a preprint in September. (MIT Technology Review)