German antitrust head warns AI may boost Big Tech’s dominance. The director of Germany’s antitrust agency has cautioned that the market dominance of Big Tech may increase as a result of artificial intelligence and that authorities should be alert for any anti-competitive behavior.
The remarks made by Andreas Mundt highlight regulatory worries that internet firms, with their enormous databases of user data, would gain a competitive edge in the new technologies employed in smart homes, web search, online advertising, autos, and many other goods and services.
Microsoft (MSFT.O) and Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O) Google (GOOGL.O) have lately developed a competitive relationship in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), with the latter extensively investing in OpenAI and the former developing the Bard AI chatbot, among other initiatives.
With the European Union racing to implement its historic AI laws before the end of the year, AI’s rise in popularity has pushed governments worldwide to attempt to place regulations on the usage of the technology.
In an interview with Reuters on Friday, Mundt said, “For us as a competition authority, this new technology mustn’t further strengthen the dominance of the large corporations.” THE HAZARD IS QUITE HIGH because AI requires two things above all else: strong servers and large quantities of data. Both exist in large online firms, he claimed.
According to Mundt, the market is still open to competition, but authorities must make sure it stays that way.
“However, models from smaller providers could also become so popular that they develop in the direction of a kind of operating system, a new platform,” he stated.
“Both developments are possible, and as an authority, we have to be careful that any competitive potential is not buried from the outset.”
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