Dean Ball: David Sacks's "agree" remark flirts with Sherman Act cartel territory

connoraxiotes · x · 2026-09-13

David Sacks said the easiest way not to build superintelligence is for OpenAI and Anthropic to "agree" not to build it. Dean Ball argues the word "agree" is the linchpin: under Sherman Act Section 1, agreements in restraint of trade are per se illegal, making labs "agreeing" to suspend commercial activity the textbook definition of cartel behavior — contradicting Sacks's claim that an antitrust exemption creates the cartel.

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