Unchained · Wednesday, September 16, 2026
Chris Perkins argues that the rapid progress in AI development is outpacing existing legal frameworks, creating significant liability concerns for companies. He draws parallels to the traditional banking sector, where regulation can consolidate power and box out smaller competitors. Perkins suggests that companies are increasingly worried about their potential liabilities, especially in cases where their AI models are misused, and may be seeking regulatory clarity to mitigate these risks.
“Is regulation going to be good for the frontier models? Well, it depends what the regulation says and does not say. Um, but generally speaking, to me, the biggest issue that that I'm seeing is the fact that if you were to take a page from the crypto playbook. We had this brand new technology that came on the scene. Uh, we had existing laws. That still are on the books. And when this technology doesn't fit neatly into those laws, sometimes you can get yourself into trouble because it doesn't fit neatly and depending who's in power, you can have issues.”
“With this technology, with AI, we have laws. We have rules against hacking. We have civil and criminal penalties. And I feel like maybe in certain cases, the hugging face example is a good example where some of those laws were broken. And potentially, that liability goes right back on the issuer in this case.”
“So to me, it's less about growth, it's more about liability management and risk management, getting back to your S1 point.”