TIME - Microsoft’s OpenAI Ties Face Potential U.K. Antitrust Probe

Europe Director Max von Thun was quoted by TIME urging antitrust authorities to examine deals between dominant tech firms and AI companies as “these large firms have used such deals and tie-ups to ‘co-opt and neutralize potential rivals’ in AI.”

Microsoft Corp.’s partnership with OpenAI Inc. is facing the potential of a full-blown UK antitrust investigation three weeks after a mutiny at the ChatGPT creator laid bare deep ties between the two companies…

At the core of the partnership between Microsoft and OpenAI is the massive amounts of computer power required to keep the worldwide boom in generative AI going. Running the systems behind tools such as ChatGPT and Google’s Bard has sent demand for cloud services and processing capacity soaring. OpenAI, for example, has become a major customer of Microsoft’s cloud business. 

In turn, all three of the world’s biggest cloud-computing providers — Microsoft, Amazon.com Inc., and Google — have become active investors in AI startups. 

These large firms have used such deals and tie-ups to “co-opt and neutralize potential rivals” in AI, said Max von Thun, director of Europe for Open Markets Institute, a think tank. “It is essential that antitrust authorities move quickly to investigate these deals, including unwinding them if necessary.”

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