Tech companies occupy an unprecedented spot in the American consumer market. Cell phones, cars, and smart devices are in almost all American households, and this is only trending upwards. Devices like Amazon's Alexa, Google’s Home Hub, and Meta’s Portal Plus have brought companies with an already widespread grasp of the technology sector to even greater heights. Now, after the recent developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI), the tech sector is threatening to take an even bigger slice of the consumer pie. With this comes an even greater burden on American policymakers to regulate this volatile new market.
Tech companies such as Google, Meta, IBM, Oracle (a computer software company), and other big names have taken steps to protect themselves from an onslaught of regulation and market protection from federal courts. These companies have paid millions of dollars in federal lobbying efforts, with the hopes of obtaining favorable outcomes in landmark federal regulation cases. These cases could mean millions, possibly even billions, of dollars for tech companies across the entire sector, especially those that involve AI. If American policymakers decide to put crushing regulations on artificial intelligence, such as how AI products can be made, marketed, and regulated, companies such as Microsoft, IBM, and Google could lose out on time and funding spent on various AI products and programs. Federal regulation also tends to slow down the production and distribution of consumer products, sometimes making them more expensive to produce, purchase, and utilize. Federal regulators have also taken an interest in regulating the tech market for reasons of privacy, disinformation, and social media related crimes.
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