According to reports from CNBC, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is conducting an informal investigation into Amazon's recent partnership with AI startup Adept. This news was confirmed on July 16. The FTC aims to gather more details about the agreement announced last month, including how Amazon hired key executives from Adept and obtained authorization to use their technology.
In this collaboration, Amazon not only hired David Luan, the co-founder and CEO of Adept, but also brought in other significant team members, planning to integrate them into Amazon's Artificial Intelligence General Intelligence department. Additionally, the agreement between Amazon and Adept includes authorization to use Adept's multimodal models and some datasets.
As global regulators increasingly scrutinize investments and partnerships between tech companies and AI startups, the FTC's investigation is not surprising. As early as January of this year, the FTC began monitoring AI transactions involving large tech companies such as Amazon, Alphabet, and Microsoft. This trend indicates that regulators are highly vigilant about these giants' mergers and acquisitions to prevent potential antitrust issues.
In this context, Amazon's partnership with Adept is seen by some legislators as an example of tech companies using "acquiring talent" to avoid antitrust scrutiny. Adept mentioned in their blog that developing their own AI models without Amazon's support would require more capital, and through this partnership, Adept can focus more on building AI agents.
Amazon's collaboration with Adept marks its latest investment in the AI field. Previously, Amazon also invested billions of dollars in Anthropic, a competitor of OpenAI, and has developed various generative AI products for its cloud computing, retail, and consumer electronics businesses.
Neither the FTC nor representatives from Adept have responded to this investigation, and Amazon's spokesperson has also declined to comment on the details of the investigation. This investigation will have significant implications for Amazon's AI strategies and its approach to partnering with startups.
### Key Points:
- 🔍 The FTC is investigating Amazon's partnership agreement with AI startup Adept, seeking more information.
- 📈 This partnership involves Amazon hiring Adept's executives and authorizing the use of their technology.
- ⚖️ U.S. and international regulators are increasingly focusing on investments and partnerships between tech companies and AI startups.