Headline : AI is Big Techs next antitrust battleground

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Tech behemoths are on an AI spending spree, doling out billions to invest in, poach from, and gobble up smaller companies developing the world’s artificial intelligence technology. But as they snap up the small players, Big Tech is toeing a fine line with antitrust watchdogs. If they’re not careful, the tech giants may face a further crackdown from regulators on these AI deals — and considering how antitrust enforcers have been scrutinizing them lately, it may not end well for Silicon Valley.

On Wednesday, Amazon upped its stake in Anthropic by $2.75 billion. Apple purchased Canadian startup Darwin AI earlier this year, adding to a long list of the company’s quiet AI acquisitions. And then there’s Microsoft’s strange deal with Inflection — the latter being a burgeoning rival to OpenAI, of which Microsoft is a investor — struck last week, which is already sparking antitrust concerns. The tech giant paid the startup a $650 million “licensing fee” to use its AI models and hire most of its employees. But that chunk of money mainly seems aimed at appeasing Inflection’s shareholders, giving them a return on their initial investment before sucking the company’s talent.

Apple, Google, and Meta are already in hot water with U.S. and E.U. regulators over potential antitrust regulations in decidedly different ways. Take, for one, the Department of Justice’s recently announced lawsuit against Apple, which claims the iPhone has throttled competition in the smartphone market. Then there’s the ongoing Federal Trade Commission (FTC) lawsuit against Meta for allegedly monopolizing personal social media networking.

That scrutiny is starting to sharpen in the AI field. Microsoft is currently facing antitrust challenges in the U.K. over its partnership with OpenAI, which regulators worry has threatened rivals. Now the FTC is investigating Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon over their deals with AI companies. And tea leaf-readers anticipate that at least some of them will end up in formal lawsuits. “There’s gonna be lawsuits in the AI area too. And there should be,” tech journalist Kara Swisher remarked last week on her podcast, Pivot, in reference to the tech industry’s rising consolidation.

Read more from the original article on here at qz.com.

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