> It is extremely convenient to someone who already has an asset if the nature of that asset means they can make a convincing argument that they should be granted a monopoly.

While this is absolutely true, it's extremely unlikely that a de jure monopoly would end up at OpenAI's feet rather than any of the FAANGs'. Even in just the USA, and the rest of the world has very different attitudes to risks, freedoms, and data processing.

Not that this proves the opposite — there's enough recent examples of smart people doing dumb things, and even without that the possibility of money can inspire foolishness in most of us.