Maurice E. Stucke (U Tennessee Law) and Ariel Ezrachi (Oxford Law) have posted “Antitrust & AI Supply Chains” on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
Will AI technology disrupt the current Big Tech Barons, foster competition, and ensure future disruptive innovation that improves our well-being? Or might the technology help a few ecosystems become even more powerful?
To explore this issue, our paper outlines the current digital market dynamics that lead to winner-take-most-or-all ecosystems. After examining the emerging AI foundation model supply chain, we consider several potential antitrust risks that may emerge should certain layers of the supply chain become concentrated and firms extend their power across layers. But the anticompetitive harms are not inevitable, as several countervailing factors might lessen or prevent these antitrust risks. We conclude with suggestions for the policy agenda to promote both healthy competition and innovation in the AI supply chain.