Elizabeth Warren wants ‘level playing field’ for crypto and Big Tech AI blocks

United States Senator Elizabeth Warren has called for a legal “level playing field” for crypto and restrictions on Big Tech creating artificial intelligence models.

Warren reiterated her crypto position, stating she wants “to collaborate with the industry” in a Feb. 27 Bloomberg Television interview.

“In our financial system, pretty much everybody follows the same set of rules,” she said before adding:

“My view is that it's the same kind of activity, the same kind of risk, and should have the same kind of regulations [...] I’m not looking for fancier regulations, or anything tougher, I just want a level playing field.”

However, she said collaboration efforts had been hampered and claimed the industry says the only way “they can survive” is if there’s “plenty of space” for crime — and listed ransomware scammers, drug and human traffickers and terrorists among those the crypto industry wants concessions for.

Warren’s proposed legislation, the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act, aims to treat decentralized technologies such as blockchain nodes, validators, noncustodial wallets, and software providers as financial institutions such as banks and stock brokers.

Crypto industry executives, organizations, and associations have been vocal in their criticism of the bill claiming it is inappropriate for the technology and will drive innovation and investment overseas.

The U.S. Treasury Department has admitted that claims over crypto usage for terrorism were overblown.

Related: Senator reveals the American Bankers Assoc. ‘helped craft’ new anti-crypto bill

Earlier at a Washington D.C. conference, Warren said she wanted to stop major tech players such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon from developing AI large language models.

“Each of the major cloud services — Google, Microsoft, and Amazon — should not be allowed to use their enormous size to dominate a whole new field, and that means blocking them from operating large language models,” she said.

Warren argued that Big Tech companies have the infrastructure and funds to dominate emerging AI areas like chatbots and could crowd out smaller competitors.

She viewed it as a new front in her campaign against Big Tech's market power and concentration in the industry.

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