BIG TECH NEEDS STRONG REGULATION
SUMMARY: The Big Tech companies need strong regulation because of their potential for great benefits but also great harm. This is especially true for the artificial intelligence (AI) industry. An innovative approach to regulation of AI is to have the federal government seize 50% of AI companies’ stock with the shares put in a sovereign wealth fund to benefit all Americans.
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The Big Tech companies need strong regulation. There are various definitions of Big Tech, but I include all the technology companies that have a significant influence on people’s daily lives – on the information they get, the ads they see, the virtual interactions they have, the online shopping they do, and the entertainment they enjoy. This includes the big social media platforms, online services providers (including app stores and search engines), and artificial intelligence (AI) companies. All of them have a degree of monopolistic control in their markets through a combination of high market share and features that make it difficult for their customers to switch to a different company.
This post focuses on the big AI companies, which are:
· Meta: owner of Llama AI (as well as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp)
· Alphabet: owner of Gemini AI (as well as YouTube and Google)
· Microsoft: owner of Copilot AI (as well as LinkedIn and a dominant seller of computer software and services)
· OpenAI owner of ChatGPT (OpenAI is 27% owned by Microsoft)
· Anthropic AI owner of Claude
· xAI owner of Grok (xAI is part of SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk along with X, formerly Twitter)
AI presents the possibility of great benefits to society but also the potential for great harm. It has also made a small number of individuals and their companies extremely wealthy. Previous posts (here and here) have discussed how such highly concentrated wealth is a threat to democracy, if not actually incompatible with it.
Strong federal regulation of AI is essential because AI presents serious threats to individuals’ well-being, national security, and jobs. It is changing how people get, process, and use information and misinformation. Its use in military applications is dangerous and potentially catastrophic. The bubble that AI is creating in our financial markets could well lead to a major economic crash if it bursts in dramatic fashion. AI’s chatbots are harming children and adults. Education is being transformed at all levels. Making sure AI-related changes are beneficial for students presents challenges. AI-generated sex abuse and pornographic images may well be the worst of what AI has delivered to-date. [1]
AI’s intelligence is built on the accumulation of human knowledge, products, and experiences, including publications, music, and art that is fed to it to train it. Typically, the authors and creators of this material have not been asked for permission to use their products nor were they compensated. And they are typically not compensated nor even acknowledged when AI shares the information and art they have produced through hard work, time, effort, and cost. This is plagiarism.
Regulation should require that creators of material used to train and inform AI, and then shared by it, should be compensated both when their material is fed in and when it is shared as part of outputs. Furthermore, creators should be acknowledged when their material is shared, just as sources must be cited in academic publications, books’ footnotes, adaptations of music, use of people’s voices, publications of photographs, and other situations.
Regulations should ban and establish liability for spreading misinformation, harmful content, and altered or faked images, speech, or writing. Regulations should require companies to disclose data about their AI models: how they are trained, how they are tested, how they are used, and the effects they have, such as discriminatory hiring decisions and harms to mental health.
Regulation has been slow in coming especially given the exploding reach and impact of AI. Although strong national regulations and standards are needed – and would make sense in creating one set of regulations and standards for companies to comply with – Congress is largely gridlocked and the Trump regime is sympathetic to and supportive of the AI oligarchs and their companies. [2]
Some states have and are attempting to regulate AI. However, it is a new and multi-headed monster that moves and shape-shifts quickly, making it hard to regulate effectively. Therefore, these states’ efforts are sorely needed and should be encouraged and supported. Given the federal government’s gridlock, the last thing Congress should do is preempt state regulation, as current federal legislation proposes. The federal government should set a minimum floor for regulations and standards, and welcome states raising the bar higher to protect their residents. [3]
An innovative approach to federal regulation of AI is being proposed by Senator Sanders (I-VT): have the federal government seize 50% of AI companies’ stock. This would give the federal government power through its ownership share and resultant representation on the companies’ Boards of Directors. The government could block decisions and practices that harm Americans and America, while pushing for actions that would be beneficial. This would give the public, through our government, a say in determining the development and use of AI in the future.
The government’s shares of the AI companies would be put in a sovereign wealth fund that would benefit the American people. Alaska created such a fund from its oil extraction revenue that pays an annual dividend to all Alaskans. Norway created a similar fund from oil drilling off its coast. Middle Eastern countries have sovereign wealth funds based on their fossil fuel wealth. [4]
As Senator Sanders points out, AI tools were built using the collective knowledge and products of human intelligence, therefore, their use should benefit all of humanity. He notes that the idea of public ownership of AI is not his original idea. It has been proposed by independent scholars and even some in the AI industry. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has spoken in support of a public wealth fund based on ownership in AI companies to give the public a stake in AI-driven economic growth. Anthropic’s CEO Amodei similarly proposed a sovereign wealth fund with investments in AI companies. Sanders proposes that the proceeds from the wealth fund could provide direct payments to the American people (as Alaska’s does) and could support the federal government’s safety net, providing a decent and dignified standard of living for everyone. [5]
For lots of good news see Jess Craven’s Chop Wood Carry Water blog’s most recent good news Sunday post here.
[1] Trahan, L., 6/12/26, “Why Congress must lead on AI standards,” The Boston Globe
[2] Levy, M., 6/15/26, “Trump tried to block AI rules; states forge ahead,” The Boston Globe from the Associated Press
[3] Carson, B., 6/12/26, “Congress shouldn’t freeze state AI safeguards.” The Boston Globe
[4] Fayyad, A., 6/14/26, “Should the government own AI companies?” The Boston Globe
[5] Sanders, B., 6/1/26, “The public should own half of the big A.I. companies,” (https://www.sanders.senate.gov/op-eds/the-public-should-own-half-of-the-big-a-i-companies/ ) an Op Ed in the New York Times