Luke Thomas: Meta just announced new “AI parental controls” after the FTC raised concerns about chatbot safety and child exploitation—but as former FTC chair, Lina Khan, explains, these reforms might be more PR than progress. She tells Luke why Meta’s corporate culture still rewards recklessness, how Microsoft’s consolidation of the gaming industry hurt consumers, and why monopoly power quietly shapes nearly every part of daily life.The conversation moves from the failures of tech self-regulation to Microsoft’s post-Activision layoffs and...
Luke Thomas: Meta just announced new “AI parental controls” after the FTC raised concerns about chatbot safety and child exploitation—but as former FTC chair, Lina Khan, explains, these reforms might be more PR than progress. She tells Luke why Meta’s corporate culture still rewards recklessness, how Microsoft’s consolidation of the gaming industry hurt consumers, and why monopoly power quietly shapes nearly every part of daily life.
The conversation moves from the failures of tech self-regulation to Microsoft’s post-Activision layoffs and price hikes, then zooms out to examine how concentrated corporate power warps everything from media to manufacturing. Khan argues that America’s growing dependency on a handful of companies—Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and others—creates both political and moral hazards, allowing executives to profit while the public absorbs all the risk.
Listen to the full conversation over on Luke’s Substack:
https://lthomas.substack.com/
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Chapters
00:00 Meta’s AI “safeguards” questioned
00:40 Lina Khan on Meta’s reckless culture
01:20 Meta’s history of ignoring harm
02:00 Microsoft’s Activision deal fallout
03:00 Gamers react to price hikes
04:10 Lina Khan on gaming layoffs
05:10 Why anti-trust must be proactive
06:00 Monopoly power and illusion of choice
07:00 Consolidation and national risk
08:00 Infant formula shortage example
09:00 What monopoly really looks like today
10:00 The “illusion of choice” in consumer brands
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