US Justice Department Steps Up Focus on Competition in AI

The US Justice Department is stepping up its focus on competition in the artificial intelligence industry, top officials said, as Big Tech companies invest billions of dollars to gain an edge in the new technology.

The DOJ is convening a workshop at Stanford University on May 30, bringing together industry leaders, researchers and government officials, Susan Athey, chief economist in the DOJ’s antitrust division, said at a Bloomberg roundtable on Wednesday.

Susan Athey

Photographer: Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg

The workshop comes as the Biden administration’s antitrust agencies pursue cases against some of the largest technology companies, including Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Amazon.com Inc.and Meta Platforms Inc.

Among the industry leaders speaking at the workshop will be DeepLearning.AI founder Andrew Ng, as well as US and UK government officials, according to a copy of the event page.

Antitrust enforcers are scrutinizing the dependency of the most popular AI startups on established tech companies for financing and infrastructure. In recent months, Microsoft Corp., Amazon and Google have invested billions of dollars in the industry, securing relationships with the leading developers of AI software.

Microsoft has invested more than $13 billion in ChatGPT maker OpenAI. The drama around the ouster and reinstatement of OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman in November unearthed how closely knit together Microsoft and the company have become. The relationship has drawn scrutiny from antitrust authorities in the UK and the European Union. In January, the US Federal Trade Commission said it was looking into Microsoft’s investment along with others made by Amazon and Alphabet.

The DOJ says it has opened a number of probes into competition around artificial intelligence and has been looking into whether AI companies are violating US antitrust law by using the same executives or directors.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Leah Nylen in Washington at lnylen2@bloomberg.net;
Sabrina Willmer in Washington at swillmer2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net

Steve Stroth

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