The AI antitrust exemption debate has become one of the most contested issues in technology policy, as leading laboratories argue that coordination on safety may require relief from competition rules. The proposal has drawn scrutiny from lawmakers, regulators and academics, with critics warning it could enable regulatory capture.
Jonathan Kanter, the former head of the antitrust division at the US Department of Justice during the Biden administration, has weighed in on the question. Now a professor of law at Washington University and a professor of technology policy at Carnegie Mellon, Kanter brought major antitrust cases against Google, Apple and Ticketmaster during his tenure. He won the cases against Google and Ticketmaster, while the case against Apple remains active under the current Department of Justice.
Safety Concerns Driving the Regulatory Debate
Researchers at prominent AI labs, including Anthropic and Google DeepMind, have departed publicly, stating that the models pose genuine threats and that AI safety is not being treated seriously across the sector. Some researchers have said the chance of AI causing catastrophic harm is greater than 10 percent.
The chief executives of several of these companies have issued various calls to slow development and introduce regulation. Among their requests are antitrust exemptions that would allow firms to coordinate on safety matters. That element has attracted particular attention, prompting accusations that the companies are seeking to form a cartel and, in some interpretations, to relieve investor pressure ahead of their public offerings.
Shifting Alliances and Policy Positions
The wider reset of American antitrust policy, led by Kanter alongside Lina Khan, has produced unexpected alliances within the AI discussion. David Sacks, a self-described libertarian and former Trump AI adviser, has approvingly shared statements by Khan arguing that no antitrust exemption is needed.
The Trump administration has adopted a posture that appears to decline direct involvement in regulating these companies, a stance Kanter describes as unusual for the federal government. Underlying the entire debate is a persistent thread of antitrust concern, alongside questions about how any new regulation might interact with competition law and the broader relationship with China.
Much of the discussion centres on how proposed regulation would function in practice and whether coordination framed as a safety measure could reduce competition. Kanter and other observers have examined how exemption requests would sit alongside existing legal frameworks, and whether current law already provides mechanisms for firms to address safety without special carve-outs.
The case against Apple, first brought during the Biden administration, continues under the present Department of Justice, a development that has surprised many observers of American competition policy.
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