US, UK, and EU finally come together to prevent AI monopoly (catastrophic market failure, not the game)

As we've continued developing AI to boldly go where nobody has gone before and where many of us never wanted to go in the first place, we regular folk have had plenty of concerns. Whether it's the potential for AI job takeovers or deepfake misinformation, there's plenty to worry about. However, one concern that's not been discussed so much is the risk of an AI monopoly. Thankfully, the US, UK, and EU are on the ball enough to see this risk and are now coming together to prevent it.

Four governing bodies spanning the US, UK, and EU, have signed a joint statement which, according to the UK government, «affirms commitment to unlock the opportunity, growth and innovation that AI technologies could provide with fair and open competition.» 

That's the positive spin, anyway. But we all know the flipside to competition is monopoly, and it seems that this is precisely what these agencies are hoping to prevent. The four agencies in question—the CMA (UK Competition and Markets Authority), EC (European Commission), DoJ (US Department of Justice), and FTC (US Federal Trade Commission)—have a few specific monopolistic risks in mind.

One such risk that these governing bodies identify is the «concentrated control of key inputs,» such as chips, data centres, and specialist expertise. Now, it might be because I'm a PC Gamer, but when I hear this I think of Nvidia. When we have popular industry experts such as Jim Keller saying that «Nvidia is slowly becoming the IBM of the AI era,» we can't ignore that Nvidia is the closest thing we have to a monopoly (without actually being a monopoly) in the AI chip market.

However, and as I argued when reporting on Keller's statement, monopolies rarely remain thus. And if we throw in some pro-competitive aid such as this international statement signifies? Well, things might just turn out okay after all.

But that's enough positivity, let's return to the doom and gloom. The joint statement also mentions the risk of «entrenching or extending market