Germany's top antitrust official warned on Wednesday that the rise of advanced artificial intelligence tools will act as a “prime accelerator” for anti-competitive behaviour by big tech companies.
The warning from Germany's Federal Cartel Office chief Andreas Mundt comes as AI leaders such as Microsoft, Google and Nvidia face increased scrutiny from U.S. and European Union watchdogs over concerns they are exerting undue influence on the market.
Mundt said powerful AI systems “will only make all the problems worse”, citing concerns that they will discourage users from shying away from the big tech companies' platforms and instead using alternative services.
“There is a real danger of greater concentration in digital markets and increased power at many levels, from the chips to the front end where users interact with tech platforms,” Mundt said at the Federal Communications Commission's annual press conference, according to Bloomberg.
Germany's antitrust chief Andreas Mundt has warned that AI is a “prime accelerator” for anti-competitive behaviour by big tech companies. dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images
In his remarks, Mundt was reportedly referring to Nvidia, a leading supplier of chips used to train AI models that briefly became the world's most valuable company last week.
However, he said Germany's antitrust authorities have not yet launched an AI-focused investigation.
Germany has seven ongoing competition investigations focused on technology companies, including one into Microsoft, which has poured $13 billion into ChatGPT developer OpenAI.
Mundt said his team is looking at Microsoft's AI efforts as part of its ongoing research.
Mundt's remarks echo similar comments by U.S. and European antitrust officials in recent weeks.
In the US, the Department of Justice is reportedly planning to investigate Nvidia to see if the company has violated competition laws, while the Federal Trade Commission is targeting Microsoft and OpenAI.
Nvidia supplies the chips used to train the AI models. Reuters
Jonathan Cantor, the Justice Department's antitrust director, recently told the Financial Times that his team is actively investigating “monopoly bottlenecks and the competitive landscape” in AI.
The Justice Department currently has two major antitrust cases targeting Google's online search and digital advertising empire.
As reported by The Washington Post, news publishers are calling for the federal government to crack down on Google after it introduced an “AI Summary” feature that replaces traditional search results with AI-generated summaries.
Microsoft is a major investor in OpenAI. NurPhoto via Getty Images
Meanwhile, European Union antitrust authorities have filed lawsuits against Apple and Microsoft for alleged anti-competitive practices.
Apple is accused of violating Europe's sweeping digital markets law through its App Store practices, including making it harder for rival app developers to “steer” customers to cheaper offers outside its ecosystem.
The iPhone maker could face billions of dollars in fines.
Microsoft has been accused of potentially violating the law by bundling its Teams software with office productivity apps such as Office 365 and Microsoft 365.
