WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, The Tech Oversight Project issued the following statement admonishing Big Tech’s corrupt White House Rose Garden dinner party with President Trump. The oligarchs’ conclave comes on the heels of damning accusations encircling Meta, OpenAI, Google, and Google-funded Character.Ai that they have caused multiple children’s suicides, shedding new light about their disregard for everyday people and the law.
“As public outrage against their lethal products continues to grow, Big Tech CEOs are seeking shelter behind President Trump, hoping to buy their way out of the many lawsuits and legislation coming to hold them accountable. This is corruption in the Rose Garden,” said Sacha Haworth, Executive Director of The Tech Oversight Project.
Meta, Apple, Google, and Amazon are currently under scrutiny by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) for alleged monopoly abuses, violations of children’s privacy, and predatory, potentially illegal acquisitions or acquihires. The FTC announced today they would be investigating OpenAI and other tech companies for the impacts their AI chatbots have on children’s mental health. There are also bills, including the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, the Kids Online Safety Act, the Open App Markets Act, the AMERICA Act, and more, that Congress should continue to move to penalize Big Tech for its anticompetitive practices, predatory product designs, and dangerous chatbots.
Background:
- Reuters: Meta’s AI rules have let bots hold ‘sensual’ chats with kids, offer false medical info
- NBC: The family of teenager who died by suicide alleges OpenAI’s ChatGPT is to blame
- Washington Post: Roblox and Meta are back in the hot seat on child safety
- New York Post: Instagram ‘Map’ feature poses ‘significant’ safety and privacy risks that could endanger kids, state AGs warn
- TechCrunch: Texas attorney general accuses Meta, Character.AI of misleading kids with mental health claims
- Digiday: Google AI Overviews linked to 25% drop in publisher referral traffic, new data shows
- Washington Post: Google’s AI pointed him to a customer service number. It was a scam.
Attendees include:
- Mark Zuckerberg, Meta CEO
- Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO
- Tim Cook, Apple CEO
- Sundar Pichai, Google CEO
- Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO
- Bill Gates, Microsoft former CEO and founder
- Sergey Brin, Google former CEO and founder
- David Limp, CEO of Blue Origin
- Greg Brockman, OpenAI President
- Shyam Sankar, Palantir CTO
- Alexandr Wang, Meta Head of Super Intelligence and founder of Scale.ai