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Big Tech AI infrastructure tie-ups set for deeper scrutiny, says EU antitrust chief
The impact of AI must be front of mind for enforcers of merger control policy, the European Union's antitrust chief and digital EVP, Margrethe Vestager, Discussing how to prevent tech giants like Microsoft, Google and Meta from monopolizing AI, the European Commission's digital EVP and competition chief gave a verbal shot across the bows of Big Tech to expect more -- and deeper -- scrutiny.
In her address, Vestager rejected the idea it’s already too late for the EU to prevent Big Tech sewing up AI markets — tentatively suggesting “we can make an impact” — but she also warned the “window of opportunity” for enforcers and lawmakers to shape outcomes that are “truly beneficial to our economy, to our citizens and to our democracies”, as she put it, will only be briefly open. Still, her speech raised a lot more questions over how enforcers and policymakers should respond to the layered challenges thrown up by AI — including democratic integrity, intellectual property and the ethical application of such systems, to name a few — than she had actual solutions. He also called for a blanket non-discrimination regime (i.e. “common carrier” type rules for platforms to prohibit price discrimination and information manipulation); and for a requisitioning of aggregated “public data” tech giants have amassed by tracking web users.
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