there's also regulatory capture where regulators get hired by these companies for six-to-seven figure jobs once they're out

https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/us-government-regulat...

Trump's America’s AI Action Plan[1] already says

>“Review all Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigations commenced under the previous administration to ensure that they do not advance theories of liability that unduly burden AI innovation.”

[1] https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Americ...

Perhaps once they all agree to calling it "superintelligence", these troubles will go away.

This is just how business is done with the government nothing new here or even hidden really.

Should this be the way it happens? No

Is it? Yes

The main thing I’ve seen recently is people learning how the world works then being shocked when it’s nothing like what is sold publicly

Things are more corrupt in the US now. That would have worked in Trump 1.0.

I predict they’ll be forced to install an “ombudsman” in the data cleaning / training team, so Trump can inject propaganda and filter out science. (As has been done to many US news outlets already).

Also, they will somehow each put >> $1B into his personal checking account, and hope presidential pardons cover bribing the president after the next few elections.

> he has already made it quite clear that he both does not consider AI to be an issue

which is putting it very mildly: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49824686

Under that framework I could see Anthropic being blocked from IPO-ing. Amodei was just slightly more confrontational than the other players by wanting to stick to their ethics (which is a really low bar). Given Trump is the pettiest person ever and does everything by vibes, I wouldn’t exclude something dramatic, like pushing Amodei out and replacing him with someone he can control better.

Just speculating here, there is no way to predict how that will play out

You aren't thinking like a fascist. This will be used as leverage in exchange for midterm or 2028 election help.

The problem is that there's absolutely no doubt in my mind that Democrats would be doing the exact same thing if they were in power.

They will also put up only PR-oriented #resistance, aiming all attacks at Trump (as you have) and ignoring the AI companies themselves.

They'll save their criticism for loudmouth AI CEOs that agree to jump out and catch a few bullets (that will bounce off harmlessly, it doesn't matter what the public thinks about them) aimed at Democratic politicians who just voted for something they said that they were against because the Republicans didn't have enough for a majority.

Loudmouth CEO: "Actually people should be grateful that they're losing their jobs - if they actually loved their jobs, and loved the world, they'd be happy that it was being done better than they ever could, because AI is perfect and guided by us wise, wonderful people."

Democratic Congressman who just voted to take away a state's ability to stop a data center being built in the middle of a reservoir: "Do you have no shame sir! You give a bad name to the majority of CEOs who are beautiful people who defend us from the inscrutable Chinese hordes. It's thoughtless talk like this that is leading to the rise in subversion among the paranoid terrorists that are emboldening the bullies who show up to city council meetings and anti-data center protests! I'm going to demand that we not award you the 634th no-bid contract that you asked for, and when we are forced to admit that we can't actually cancel that award, I'll ask that you be officially censured by Congress!"