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Jonathan Kanter

Distinguished Teaching Professor, School of Law; formerly Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington University in St. Louis

Search every verified Jonathan Kanter interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Jonathan Kanter, the former assistant attorney general for antitrust at the U.S. Department of Justice and now a distinguished teaching professor at Washington University School of Law, has recently commented on AI regulation and antitrust enforcement in several media appearances. In an October 2026 CNBC interview, Kanter discussed President Trump's newly formed "Super Intelligence" force, expressing skepticism about granting antitrust immunity to AI companies. He argued that existing laws already permit collaboration on safety standards and information sharing about threats, and he drew parallels to Section 230, which he said conferred immunity that ultimately became a liability shield for social media companies. Kanter also stated that the public is demanding accountability for AI harms and that imposing rules early in the technology's development would be less invasive than trying to contain a hardened industry later. In a September 2026 appearance on The Verge's Decoder podcast, Kanter elaborated on his views, comparing the current AI landscape to inventing cars without roads or traffic rules. He said companies do not need to coordinate to deliver safe products, citing Boeing and Airbus as examples of competitors that improve safety independently. He also suggested that harmful AI products should face consequences, including being taken off the market. In a separate September 2026 appearance on Profy Markets, Kanter praised the FTC's lawsuit against Amazon as a "blockbuster" enforcement action, describing allegations that Amazon manipulated its ad auction system to overcharge advertisers by over $20 billion. He also characterized Anthropic's deal with cloud company Lambda as circular, noting Nvidia's investments in both firms, and said such deals do not demonstrate the underlying economic health of AI.

Recent appearances

Verified interview transcripts

Notable quotes

“No they don't. So the labs do not need blanket antitrust immunity to cooperate in safety. Existing laws, properly structured collaborations on standards, sharing information about malicious actors and threats are all perfectly permissible under the current laws. So no immunity is necessary. And, you know, I, for one, am a little bit concerned or suspicious of any immunity in tech. I think we saw the results of Sectio”

“I think they're helpful but not sufficient. So products liability has ultimately been a useful framework or at least an effective, recently effective framework against social media. But it took us over a decade to get there. I think we need to establish basic principles and duty of care that essentially say, if you build harmful products and they do bad things, you're held responsible. And the consequences of violati”

“These companies do not need to coordinate in order to deliver safe and secure products to society. Think about this. Imagine like Boeing and Airbus. Boeing's Boeing, you know, a few years ago had doors falling off the plane. It wasn't Airbus's fault and they didn't need to slow down innovation with Airbus in order to prevent those doors from flying off the plane. They needed to figure out um how to build planes that ”

“The state of the world right now is it's like we've invented cars and trucks. Um but we have no lines on the road, no traffic lights and no stop signs and no speed limits. Um we've invented this incredibly powerful technology that's transforming how we live our lives, how we conduct business, how we socialize, how we seek and generate and consume information. Uh and we need some basic rules of the road. And I think a”

“For two decades, people have been clamoring for regulation or oversight or some accountability for big tech, especially with respect to social media and children. Section 230 and lack of government action particularly by the US Congress has effectively allowed these companies to go by untouched and with no accountability for the impact that they're having on society including on the mental health of children. This ma”

“This is a blockbuster lawsuit, and I have to hand it to the FTC. I've been critical in the administration when they do the wrong thing. But I'm also quick to praise them when they do the right thing. And this is an example of the administration bringing an important enforcement action against Amazon. And I should note that it's alongside a large number of bipartisan state attorneys general. So here's what the lawsuit”

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