CONCEPT
Regulatory Capture
The structural dynamic by which regulated industries shape the regulations that govern them — the primary mechanism through which installation-phase incumbents delay or dilute deployment-phase institutional construction.
Regulatory capture is the phenomenon in which regulatory agencies come to serve the interests of the industries they are meant to regulate rather than the public interest. The pattern is consistent across regulatory domains and historical periods: the parties most affected by regulation invest the most in shaping it, and the result is regulation that serves the regulated as much as the public. The mechanisms include direct lobbying, revolving-door employment between industry and regulatory agencies, selective provision of technical expertise, campaign contributions, and the gradual socialization of regulators into the worldview of the industries they oversee. For AI regulation, capture operates through all these mechanisms, amplified by the concentration of technical expertise in a small number of companies.
In The You On AI Field Guide
Every previous turning point featured a contest in which regulatory capture was a central dynamic. The canal companies captured parliamentary oversight of waterway regulation. The railway companies captured rate-setting boards. The broadcast media captured the FCC. The platform companies of the ICT age