FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said “everyone should be deeply suspicious” of AI companies that seek antitrust exemptions while simultaneously lobbying for new regulations. His remarks were widely read as directed at Anthropic, whose CEO had recently called for an antitrust exemption to let rival AI labs coordinate a slower pace of development on safety grounds. Ferguson said companies seeking both regulatory barriers to entry and antitrust waivers are effectively trying to insulate their market position from new competition, framing the comment as his personal opinion rather than a formal commission stance.
