Five years ago, the relationship between governments and tech firms was characterized by a real battle and tug of war for control, with governments using antitrust and other tools to constrain tech firms; today, the relationship has shifted to hand-in-glove alliance between the two.

Tech firms may be adopting a 'welfarist' positioning toward consumers to avoid backlash, with firms like Anthropic taking more pro-consumer stances than competitors like Open AI, potentially allowing some firms to emerge as consumer-focused leaders.