Federal Trade Commission seal is seen at a news conference to announce that Facebook Inc has agreed to a settlement of allegations it mishandled user privacy at FTC Headquarters in Washington, U.S., July 24, 2019. REUTERS/Yuri GripasNEW YORK : U.S. antitrust enforcers are digging into Big Tech's role in the artificial intelligence boom, exploring whether business practices by entrenched players stifle competition in the burgeoning space.
"To the extent data has been aggregated or resides in the hands of a small few, that may become the high water mark for competition because the barriers to entry in scale and access to these key ingredients is limited to a small number of players," he said.Another area of concern is the effect that generative AI could have on creative people whose work it could replicate, as well as the engineers who build the technology.
The FTC, which recently moved to ban noncompete agreements, last year flagged potential concerns with AI employers stifling competition by blocking skilled workers from heading to rival companies.In January, the FTC opened a wide-ranging inquiry into AI companies and cloud service providers, ordering OpenAI, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Anthropic to provide information on recent investments and partnerships.
The regulator also seeks to understand how the partnerships with Big Tech influence strategy and"decisions around the pricing of products and services; decisions around the granting of access to products and services; and decisions around personnel."