September 15, 2026, 19:53 GMT | Insight
US Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson said Tuesday that he is deeply suspicious of artificial intelligence companies who seek regulation as well as antitrust exemptions for the sector, saying AI firms have been saber-rattling about consequences if the government does not regulate them.
US Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson said Tuesday that he is deeply suspicious of artificial intelligence companies who seek regulation as well as antitrust exemptions for the sector, saying AI firms have been saber-rattling about consequences if the government does not regulate them.
Ferguson, who was speaking at a conference*, was asked about
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei recently arguing for a slowdown of innovation in the AI space and calling for "collective" action by government and stakeholders.
"I will say generally though that if companies are simultaneously coming to Washington and asking for a host of regulations and an antitrust exemption, all of my alarm bells go off. Regulation plus antitrust exemption sure sounds like moat-digging," Ferguson said.
The US is a leader in the AI innovation race because companies are hyper competitive with each other, and there is no central planning and direction, he said. Ferguson said the claim by a Democratic politician that any company seeking regulation is extraordinary and unprecedented is "absolutely a lie."
"I've not been in politics as long as some people have, but the number of times I have heard companies come in and say, 'Oh yeah, we're looking for this suite of reasonable regulations that we think would be great for the industry.' You know what they're asking for? They're asking for barriers to entry that will insulate their incumbency from challenge," the FTC chairman said.
"If you combine that with the requested antitrust exemption, everyone should be deeply suspicious about this," he said.
At the end of the day, such policy decisions are going to be set by the president, and the FTC will have some role to play as an antitrust and consumer protection enforcer. The FTC will be aligned with the rest of the administration on that, Ferguson said.
"But my own view is that I'm deeply suspicious about a request for regulation by the incumbents combined with an antitrust exemption. That sure sounds like moat digging," the Republican FTC chief said.
— Saber-rattling by AI firms —
Ferguson said that while AI firms seek regulation and antitrust exemptions, at the same time what he is noticing coming from the leadership of these companies as well rank-and-file employees online is "quite terrifying."
"The way these people talk about it [AI] sounds deeply misanthropic," he said.
Every other industry is constantly talking about what they can do for humanity and how they will improve people's lives. "And AI is sort of this like constant saber-rattling about how we're going to do bad things unless you all regulate us. And that's just a terrible way to talk about it," Ferguson said.
Some in the Trump administration have pointed out that a lot of the ideology that appears to be compelling some of these AI leaders seems very dangerous. "And I'm just going to lend my voice to that," he said.
"I don't quite understand.... like shut up and dribble, but would you guys please focus on what you kept promising was going to come, which was a host of innovations and revolutions that was going to improve all of our lives? It wasn't going to be a bunch of like AI slop and experiments to see how hard we can hack stuff," the FTC chairman said.
AI companies were supposed to help build weapons and infrastructure that insulate American security dominance, or contribute to finding new cures that are going to fix cancer and dementia where very little headway has been made over the last 50 years, he said.
"And instead of talking, making all sorts of threats, make the things you promise us that is going to make America and the world better. I land on top of that deep suspicion about a combined request for regulation and for insulation from antitrust," Ferguson said.
As the nation's antitrust and consumer protection enforcer, the FTC has brought consumer protection cases against AI firms. Ferguson said he has no reason to think that the laws on the books are insufficient to protect Americans from violations of the existing laws, and the agency is going to continue to vigorously enforce the laws in the AI space "as much as we do everywhere else."
*"20th Annual Global Antitrust Enforcement Symposium," Georgetown Law, Washington, DC, Sept. 15, 2026.
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