German Antitrust Agency Tests The Impact Of Artificial Intelligence On Competition

Head of the German Antitrust Institute, Andreas Mundt (photo: twitter @AMundt_BKartA ·)

JAKARTA - The head of the German Antitrust Institute, Andreas Mundt, has warned that artificial intelligence (AI) may increase the market strength of Big Tech. He said regulators should monitor any anti-competitive behavior.

Andreas Mundt's comments highlight regulatory concerns that tech giants, which have a huge user data warehouse, may gain competitive advantages in new technologies used in smart homes, web searches, online advertising, cars, and many other products and services.

Alphabet and Microsoft's Google recently became competitors in artificial intelligence (AI). Microsoft has invested massive funds in OpenAI. While Alphabet is building an AI Bard chatbot, it is an important investment.

The growing popularity of AI has prompted governments around the world to try to impose rules on the use of this technology, where EU countries are racing to adopt AI rules by the end of this year.

"For us as the competition authority, it is very important that this new technology does not strengthen the dominance of big companies," Mundt told Reuters in an interview on Friday, October 6.

"The danger is huge because you need two things above all for AI, which is a strong server and large amounts of data. Big internet companies have both," he said.

Mundt said the sector is still open to competition, but regulators must ensure that it remains so.

"However, models from smaller providers can also become so popular that they develop towards the operating system, a new platform," he said.

"Both developments allow, and as an authority we must be careful so that potential competition does not sink from the start," he explained.