Hindsight’s 20/20: Let’s protect Kansas from Big Tech monopolies

Harvard Extension School graphic

I’m not a Silicon Valley engineer, just a Paola farm kid turned lawmaker, but I know this: When a few billion-dollar firms lock up tools everyone needs, Kansans pay the price.

That’s exactly where artificial intelligence is headed if we don’t act.

AI already decides which wheat rows get irrigated, flags strokes before a doctor reaches the bedside and cuts paychecks across the state. If a couple of coastal giants corner that market, they’ll set the price and we’ll hand over the check.

President Trump sees the danger. At his urging, the Federal Trade Commission is examining Microsoft’s billion-dollar stake in OpenAI, suspecting it’s using Windows and Office muscle to box out rivals. That scrutiny is long overdue.

When one corporation controls the tools, out come the bloated contracts, mystery fees, and forced “upgrades.” Bills that land on schools, hospitals and government agencies first. That’s taxpayer money taking a one-way flight to Silicon Valley, and I’m tired of waving goodbye.

The hit lands hardest where the cell signal drops to one bar. Farmers depend on AI software to read soil data and stretch razor-thin margins. Rural clinics lean on algorithms that spot sepsis minutes sooner. Machine shops in Cowley County use smart robotics to keep jobs from drifting overseas.

Jack up the rate, and folks either swallow the cost or shut the doors. Monopolies always hammer rural America first.

Some hear “antitrust” and picture a new bureaucracy. No thanks! We can look to the past and rules that work. Any vendor chasing Kansas tax dollars must promise clear pricing, no junk fees, and the right for us to walk away with our own data. Break that promise and the attorney general should haul them into court, same as any con artist.

This isn’t about punishing success; it’s about fair play. Kansas fought utility and telecom monopolies that strung a single power line down a dirt road and charged whatever they pleased. The wires are now fiber and the towers are cloud servers, but the hustle is the same: capture the customer, then raise the price.

So here’s the plan. First, write plain-English guarantees on price transparency, data portability, and competitive bidding into every state or school AI contract. Second, cut red tape so Kansas startups can sell to Kansas agencies before a mega-corp gobbles them up. Third, back the FTC probe all the way; because if Microsoft or anyone else is strangling competition they should answer in court before sinking their hooks deeper into our wallets.

Shrugging it off as “too complicated” hands our kids’ future to boardrooms that couldn’t find Dodge City on a map. Our forebears refused to let one power company dim every porch light from Liberal to Leavenworth; we shouldn’t let one tech behemoth dim our economy now.

Let’s make sure the next generation of Kansans writes its own code, owns its own data, and keeps its own dollars without paying a toll to Silicon Valley. That isn’t a trendy tech crusade; it’s common sense, it protects the taxpayer, and it backs a president who’s fighting the same fight nationwide. I’m all in.