AI Firms Try to Avoid Big Tech’s Past Mistakes on the Hill
“Way back when. Circa 2013, the internet giants were like a lot of scrappy new industries in Washington.
The firms’ few representatives were in the capital to teach again lawmakers about their industry and tout the virtue of unfettered entrepreneurship. They slapped down bone-headed proposals and defanged well-advised ones.
‘I don’t think it’s a secret that the tech companies of that era were really dragged to the table and were reluctant to engage in D.C.,’ said Lauren Culbertson Grieco, a onetime aide to former Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga) and Twitter’s former head of U.S. policy.”
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Culbertson Grieco, who now advises tech startups through her Founders Policy Group, said Altman’s prior testimony in favor of regulation as early as 2023 was ‘a signal that people took note of what happened with the tech companies of the last wave.’”