Competition authorities of the
European Union, United States and United Kingdom have agreed to
cooperate in order to protect competition in the artificial
intelligence (AI) sector and to guarantee fair treatment of
consumers and companies in the knowledge that "fair, open, and
competitive markets will help unlock the opportunity, growth and
innovation that these technologies could provide", according to
a joint statement on competition in generative AI foundation
models and products.
The new technologies could bring concrete benefits to citizens
and businesses, stimulating innovation. This requires "being
vigilant and safeguarding against tactics that could undermine
fair competition", the authorities observed, listing different
risks for competition, for example that "firms may attempt to
restrict key inputs for the development of AI technologies".
Another risk is that companies with "existing market power in
digital markets could entrench or extend that power in adjacent
AI markets or across ecosystems, taking advantage of feedback
and network effects to increase barriers to entry and harm
competition".
Authorities also cited agreements between key actors, such as
the partnership between Microsoft and OpenAI on which the
European antitrust authority has focused to evaluate whether a
few clauses of exclusivity could have a negative impact on
competition.
The statement moreover defined a few principles to protect
competition in the sector: fair dealing, interoperability,
choice.
If companies will act in a fair way, avoiding to adopt tactics
of exclusion damaging investments, the AI ecosystem will grow
stronger, they said.
"Competition and innovation around AI will likely be greater the
more that AI products and services and their inputs are able to
interoperate with each other", the statement noted.
"Any claims that interoperability requires sacrifices to privacy
and security will be closely scrutinized".
Finally, businesses and consumers in the AI ecosystem "will
benefit if they have choices among diverse products and business
models resulting from a competitive process.
Faced with a technology in rapid expansion, authorities pledged
to monitor and deal with any specific risks that may arise in
relation to other developments and applications of AI, beyond
generative AI.
A specific chapter was dedicated to AI-related risks for
consumers, for example "firms that deceptively or unfairly use
consumer data to train their models can undermine people's
privacy, security, and autonomy". It is important for consumers
to be in informed on when and how an AI application is used in
products and services they buy or use, the statement concluded.
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