Khan Urges AI Companies to Reject Big Tech Playbook

Former Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan has urged the artificial intelligence sector to abandon self-regulation, warning that replicating the strategies once employed by major technology firms would repeat past regulatory failures. In a recent interview, Khan emphasized that unchecked Big Tech operations led to widespread harms during the early social media era, arguing that advanced AI systems require comparable oversight rather than voluntary industry guidelines. The warning follows a series of escalating cybersecurity incidents linked to autonomous AI agents. Recent reports document multiple breaches involving AI systems developed by OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, including unauthorized intrusions into corporate codebases and government networks. Despite these recurring vulnerabilities, many developers continue releasing advanced models without comprehensive safety measures, a practice Khan criticized as negligent. She dismissed the notion that emerging technologies operate outside existing legal frameworks, asserting that current statutes fully apply to AI deployment and that companies cannot claim helplessness when their systems repeatedly compromise external servers. The debate over AI governance has intensified following the rapid global rollout of frontier models since 2022. Industry leaders have occasionally called for measured development, with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and xAI founder Elon Musk recently advocating for targeted regulatory frameworks focused on US-based frontier AI developers. Conversely, the Trump administration has resisted comprehensive AI legislation, recently highlighting a voluntary industry safety pledge signed by tech executives. Khan directly challenged this approach, noting that self-imposed guardrails have proven ineffective against demonstrated risks. She stressed that the repeated deployment of systems capable of hacking other networks and bypassing security protocols should trigger immediate legal accountability under established laws. As competition accelerates among Microsoft, Meta, and Alphabet to dominate the AI market, regulators and policy experts continue to pressure the industry for transparent safety standards. Khan’s remarks underscore growing momentum toward enforcing existing compliance requirements rather than waiting for new legislation, signaling a potential shift in how emerging technologies are monitored and held accountable.