The United States antitrust chief Jonathan Kanter has declared the need to investigate the AI industry due to the alleged monopolization of the market. To avoid the domination of several companies, Kanter’s analysis will encompass several facets of AI such as computing capacity, data utilization, and hardware access.
Jonathan Kanter, the U. S. antitrust enforcer has pointed out the fact that it is high time that regulators focused on the AI industry. During an interview, Kanter stressed the need to look into the competition and find monopoly choke points. These points include computing power for AI, data for training LLMs, cloud providers’ domination, engineering talent, and AI hardware.
Kanter said that it is crucial to intervene early to address the problem of large technology companies monopolizing the AI market. He stated that the current status of AI competition is at its highest level and active steps are needed to sustain this level of competition. According to Kanter, if regulators intervene in real-time, they can be less intrusive to the companies as they can manage monopoly threats adequately.
The concentration of the AI industry is another factor that poses numerous questions. Another challenge is the limited availability of graphics processing units (GPUs) necessary for training LLMs. When people want to use these innovative products, they begin to focus on how chipmakers are distributing their chips. This is especially important to discuss as firms such as Nvidia record increased revenues and stock prices because of the high sales of their GPUs. The overall revenues in the first quarter of 2023 were recorded to be 262% higher than the same period of the previous year which took Nvidia’s valuation over $2.5 trillion.
Furthermore, monopolies in AI can cause a more significant problem of power consolidation that kills the spirit of innovation and enhances social imparity. Recently Singularity NET’s Chief Operating Officer Janet Adams expressed her concerns about big tech companies taking over artificial general intelligence (AGI). Adams also points out that if the creation of AGI will be in the hands of several large companies the creation will be focused on making money and may not bring a positive impact on society and may lead to a dystopian future.
To avoid monopolistic control in the AI sector the following steps can be taken. Kanter referred to the current government programs that have been put in place to help increase production like the Chips and Science Act of 2022. This legislation provides $39 billion of subsidies for chip manufacturing inside the United States, intending to strengthen the local supply chain and cut dependence on foreign manufacturers.
Also, decentralizing the development of Artificial Intelligence through the use of blockchain technology could be a significant move. This would spread the advancements in AI among a larger number of players, and thus, the advantages of AI would be enjoyed by a larger number of people. Thus, regulators can encourage the creation of more open-source AI projects and support less experienced developers.
Thus, constant monitoring of the AI sector and its activities is crucial as the sector grows rapidly. Jonathan Kanter’s approach of being aggressive in identifying potential monopolies in AI is good for ensuring that there is no monopolistic behavior in the market. Thus, the regulators should focus on eliminating the monopoly choke points and encouraging decentralization to guarantee that the AI advantages will be distributed and innovations will be encouraged. As per CoinGabbar, AI’s future is most likely to be shaped by these two poles to avoid monopolistic tendencies while encouraging technological development in the interest of humanity.
