U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden is calling for action against a new practice big technology companies are using to swallow up the talent and products of innovative AI startups without formally acquiring them.
FILE - Sen. Ron Wyden , D-Ore., speaks with reporters at the U.S. Capitol, on Sept. 11, 2023, in Washington. Wyden is asking US regulators to look into a hiring practice being employed by the biggest technology companies to swallow up the talent and products of innovative AI startups without formally acquiring them.
“I’m very concerned about the massive consolidation that’s going on in AI,” U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, told The Associated Press. “The technical lingo is ‘up and down the stack’. But, in plain English, a few companies control a major portion of the market, and just concentrate — rather than on innovation — trying to buy out everybody else’s talent.”
“What is going on here is instead of buying startups outright, big tech companies are trying a new play,” Wyden said in an interview before sending the letter. ”They don’t want to formally acquire the companies, avoiding the antitrust scrutiny. I think that’s going to be the playbook until the FTC really starts digging into these deals.”
Adept, which aims to make AI software agents that help people with workplace tasks, said it was trying to do two things at once — build the foundational AI technology as well as the products for end users. But continuing on that path “would’ve required spending significant attention on fundraising for our foundation models, rather than bringing to life our agent vision,” it said in a statement explaining the Amazon deal.
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