The US Department of Justice is signaling openness to collaboration between AI companies on safety protocols. Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward stated on September 17 at Fordham University that the DOJ does not currently view such coordination as anticompetitive.
The agency is considering updating its cybersecurity collaboration guidelines to include AI security. This move aims to provide a clearer legal framework for developers, though no frontier AI lab has formally requested a meeting with the Antitrust Division to discuss these concerns.
The current regulatory uncertainty stems from the December 2024 withdrawal of the 2000 Antitrust Guidelines for Collaboration Among Competitors. Since then, companies have lacked a clear roadmap for distinguishing between legitimate cooperation and illegal collusion.
FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson expressed skepticism on September 15 regarding antitrust exemptions for AI firms. He warned that coordinated safety standards could be used to exclude smaller competitors, creating a policy tension between the DOJ and the FTC.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has proposed a narrow antitrust waiver to allow labs to coordinate on development pace and safety standards. Meanwhile, the European Union is also monitoring the situation to adapt its own antitrust frameworks to AI-related risks.
