Lina Khan calls Big Tech self-regulation “a proven failure”, and says the FTC's AI inquiry should be taken with a grain of salt

Lina Khan, who chaired the Federal Trade Commission under President Biden, was interviewed by George Stephanopoulos on ABC's This Week on Sunday 4 October. He asked whether letting the AI industry regulate itself was a recipe for disaster.

“We've seen that self-regulation efforts by big tech have been a proven failure,” Khan said, according to ABC's transcript. She argued that it would be a mistake to repeat that approach with advanced AI systems, and that new technology brings no blanket exemption from laws already on the books. She listed product liability, consumer protection, tort and public-nuisance law as examples, and said liability could reach specific executives as well as the companies.

Stephanopoulos raised the FTC's investigation of OpenAI. Khan was sceptical: “Well, look, I think we need to take any reporting around investigations by this administration with a huge grain of salt.” She said state attorneys general should look into the companies, and that Congress needs to legislate.

The interview aired on the morning President Trump named FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson as one of the four leaders of his new Super Intelligence Force, which will coordinate the government's engagement with AI companies. The FTC confirmed its inquiry into OpenAI, Anthropic and other AI firms on 1 October. Khan's argument, that the inquiry may not be independent of the White House, is her view; no response from the FTC was found.

• Claimed Khan said self-regulation efforts by big tech have been a proven failure. ABC News, This Week transcript
• Claimed Khan said reporting on investigations by this administration should be taken with a huge grain of salt. ABC News, This Week transcript