The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that U.S. antitrust enforcers are opening an investigation into the relationships between leading artificial-intelligence start-ups such as ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and Anthropic, and the tech giants that have invested billions of dollars into them. An Associated Press dispatch to The Globe says that the action targets Amazon, Google and Microsoft and their sway over the generative AI boom that has fuelled demand for chatbots such as ChatGPT. "We're scrutinizing whether these ties enable dominant firms to exert undue influence or gain privileged access in ways that could undermine fair competition," said Lina Khan, chair of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, on Thursday. Ms. Khan said the market inquiry would review "the investments and partnerships being formed between AI developers and major cloud service providers." The FTC said it issued "compulsory orders" to five companies -- cloud providers Amazon, Google and Microsoft, and AI start-ups Anthropic and OpenAI -- requiring them to provide information about their agreements and the decision-making around them. The European Union and the United Kingdom are also scrutinizing the relationship with Microsoft and OpenAI.