One very simplistic vision of big business and big government has remarkable persistence: the notion that the two are rivals, and that the purpose and effect of regulation is to curb the excesses of big business.
Some who repeat this error do so out of ignorance. Others are exploiting such ignorance for advantage. The news media, whose job it is to tell the truth, should not let anyone get away peddling this false model.
Yet it happens all the time. The latest instance concerns artificial intelligence and crops up in a Los Angeles Times article.
Democratic state Assemblywoman Rebecca Bauer-Kahan is championing a bill aimed at banning “algorithmic discrimination,” and she boasts the support of tech companies Microsoft and Workday.
The Los Angeles Times quotes her: “Usually, you don’t have industries saying, ‘Regulate me,’ but various communities don’t trust AI, and what this effort is trying to do is build trust in these AI systems, which I think is really beneficial for industry.”
Sigh.
Yes, usually you do have industries saying “Regulate me.”
“It may seem unusual for a company to ask for government regulation of its products,” a Microsoft executive wrote in 2018 calling for federal regulation of facial recognition technology.
“It’s quite unusual for this industry to ask to be regulated — regulated by anyone, let alone by government,” an AI industry executive wrote in 2021. “Yet that is exactly what is happening when it comes to climate change.”
“Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) called it ‘historic’ that a company was coming to Congress pleading for regulation,” Axios reported in 2023.
A liberal lobbyist and activist said at the time, “It’s not often you hear a company call for the government to regulate it.”
Here’s a 2011 story from Reuters: “’It’s not often you see someone advocating for more regulation, but we are because we believe this is a consumer protection issue,’ said Marilyn Mohman-Gillis of the CFP Board.”
Allstate’s CEO wrote an op-ed in 2009 titled “Regulate Me, Please.”
That same year, Reuters reported: “Famed hedge fund manager James Chanos, best known for his early spotting of Enron’s flaws, called on Wednesday for Congress to pass a law requiring Securities and Exchange Commission regulation of hedge funds and other investment firms.”
H&R Block and the producer of TurboTax supported Barack Obama’s illegal regulations of their industry.
Goldman Sachs announced in 2010 that “we support measures that would require higher capital and liquidity levels.”
I could list many more examples.
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It is not literally every day that you see a company or industry asking to be more heavily regulated, but it is multiple times a year.
Why do they do it? Sometimes because they believe regulation will improve consumer or investor confidence. Sometimes they support regulation in order to price out their smaller competition. There are many reasons, some less noble than others. We shouldn’t be surprised.