EU-U.S.-UK antitrust authorities will 'safeguard AI markets'

(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 24 - 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.
    (ANSA).