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Schmidt Labels OpenAI and Anthropic Colonial Powers as AI Tool Attrition Grows

By InnovaAI Research2 min readThe-decoder

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, alongside historian Niall Ferguson, argues in Foreign Affairs that the US and China have become AI empires treating every other nation as a dependency. Meanwhile, a growing AI graveyard, including Apple's stalled Siri overhaul and OpenAI's troubled super app launch, signals that even well-funded AI tools carry real discontinuation risk.

Key Facts

01Eric Schmidt, Niall Ferguson, and Lisa Klaassen describe OpenAI and Anthropic as colonial trading companies in a Foreign Affairs essay, framing non-US, non-Chinese businesses as dependencies.
02Apple's repeatedly delayed Siri AI overhaul and OpenAI's troubled super app launch are among the high-profile entries in a growing AI project graveyard.
03Platform concentration and accelerating product churn combine to create structural risk for agencies building workflows on single AI vendors.
04White-label and workflow automation tools reduce the blast radius when an AI tool is discontinued or changes terms.

Why does this matter for agencies?

▶Concentration of AI infrastructure in two geopolitical blocs gives a handful of companies pricing and access control over tools agencies use daily.
▶High-profile AI product failures from well-resourced companies show that even dominant players discontinue or stall projects, leaving dependent workflows broken.
▶Agencies that pass vendor brand identity through to clients face compounded reputational risk if that vendor's product underperforms or shuts down.
▶Workflow automation layers between agency processes and individual AI tools are the most practical near-term hedge against vendor instability.

What should agencies do?

Audit your current AI stack to identify any workflow where a single tool shutting down would halt client delivery, then document a fallback for each critical dependency.

medium effort

Introduce a workflow automation layer using Make or n8n between your agency processes and individual AI tools so components can be swapped without full rebuilds.

high effort

Shift client-facing reporting and SEO deliverables to white-label platforms such as AgencyAnalytics or SE Ranking so your brand, not a vendor's, is what clients see.

low effort