Senator Schumer’s New AI Roadmap Falls Short

Image from Wall Street Journal

“The most effective way of protecting our democracy is to use antimonopoly law to restructure these corporations and regulate their behavior, beginning today.” 

WASHINGTON – Open Markets executive director Barry Lynn released the following statement in reaction to the newly-released AI Roadmap, led by Senator Schumer. 

“From the first, we feared this process would ultimately amount to little more than a big waste of time. Yet the authors of this report also propose that American taxpayers approve an eye-watering sum of money – a phenomenal $32 billion to "democratize" AI – without any guarantees that these funds won’t simply end up with the same corporations responsible for enclosing it. Smart public investment could help us create alternatives to Big Tech’s walled gardens, but this isn’t it.  

“As we made clear in our report "AI in the Public Interest", AI as we experience it today is a function of monopoly power. And today's very biggest monopolists are wielding AI in ways that will only further concentrate their power and impose enormous environmental costs. Worse yet they are using AI in ways that amplify some of their biggest existing threats to our society, such as disinformation, discrimination, and the manipulation of citizens. This means the most effective way of protecting our democracy is to use antimonopoly law to restructure these corporations and regulate their behavior, beginning today.  

“The Open Markets Institute calls on Senate leadership to get serious about protecting the American people and American democracy from the misuse and abuse of AI by today’s tech monopolists. Meanwhile we call on the rest of Congress to ignore this report, and most of its recommendations.” 

Open Markets’ report “AI in the Public Interest: Confronting the Monopoly Threat” provides a real roadmap for preventing tech giants from exacerbating some of the worst problems of the digital age via their dominance in AI.