The Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division met with G7 competition regulators to collaborate on ways to "ensure" competition in the market for AI tech and their applications. The group, which included FTC Chair Lina Khan, issued a communiqué distilling its members' concerns and indicating where their collective focus might point, including a warning that the regulators will be on the lookout for any use of the tech to avoid competition.
Firms "should not be permitted to use AI, machine learning, or algorithms to circumvent the competitive process, for example, by inappropriately sharing competitively sensitive information or colluding via a pricing algorithm," the regulators wrote. "We will be vigilant in addressing the anticompetitive use of these technologies."
The group also highlighted the importance of interoperability to stave off concentration in the market for the tech, and said they plan to "closely scrutinize" any claims that interoperability requires sacrifices to privacy and security of AI models.
The regulators also laid out other "guiding principles," including their intent to prevent existing large tech firms from "leveraging their dominant position" to eat up the market share for AI products. Challenges of accessing data, specialized chips and certain hires could make it hard for smaller firms to keep up with existing tech players, they said.
"These challenges may be exacerbated by partnerships and licensing agreements between AI companies and incumbent technology firms, many of which already possess substantial power within the digital economy due to their ecosystems and accumulated advantages," according to the notice.
The regulators floated the possibility of requiring some key building blocks of AI models, like training data, be made openly available to promote innovation from new players.
They also collectively committed to timely enforcement of anticompetitive practices and pursuing remedies that would "take into account the specific features of the markets in question, such as network effects and data feedback loops."
The group noted the concern that generative AI systems could have potential anticompetitive effects on human creative works, saying that AI firms could "exercise monopsony power over creators" by using certain art and precluding smaller AI firms from accessing the works. The regulators also pointed out that AI products have the potential to distort consumers' decisions by misleading them or shaping preferences, which could harm competition.
"Overall, these risks, especially when combined, can significantly affect the diversity of voices, the range and quality of choices available to consumers and businesses, and the quality and reliability of information available to the public," they said.
The group met in Italy, where the current G7 presidency resides. The FTC declined to comment beyond the group's public statements.
--Editing by Covey Son.
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