Opinion | The Real AI Fear: Lawyers

Sept. 27, 2026 11:15 am ET

OpenAI and Anthropic are the Mercedes and BMW of artificial intelligence. No, not because they’re expensive and vulnerable to cheap imports from the Far East. And not because they exude obnoxious “The Best or Nothing” and “The Ultimate Driving Machine” Teutonic attitudes. Instead, they share a growing fear of liability.

Some background: There are various levels of autonomous driving. In Level 2, AI controls the steering and speed, but drivers must keep their hands on the wheel and watch the road. Tesla’s oxymoronically named Full Self-Driving (Supervised) is Level 2. What we really want is Level 3: read a book, watch TikTok, text a friend while driving, but be ready to take over if asked. Waymo and robo-taxis are Level 4, driverless in limited geography and weather.

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Andy Kessler is the author of Inside View, a column he writes for The Wall Street Journal on technology and markets and where they intersect with culture. He won the 2019 Gerald Loeb Award for commentary. He is the author of several books including Wall Street Meat and Eat People. He used to design chips at Bell Labs before working on Wall Street for PaineWebber and Morgan Stanley and then as a founder of the hedge fund Velocity Capital.