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Currently, the EU is investigating top tech brands to see if they are in violation of anti-competitive practices pertaining to AI. Obviously, brands under the EU’s eye consist of Microsoft, Google, and other large companies. Well, it appears that Microsoft wanted to tattle, and pointed to Google’s dominance in the AI market.
Right now, we are still learning about the potential impacts of big brands on AI. This is still uncharted territory, but we’ve seen some scary things happen so far. For example, a new report states that publishers could stand to lose up to $2 billion in ad revenue thanks to Google’s Search Generative Experience. This is the AI tool that generates text-based responses to Google searches. It allows searchers to forego clicking on links and get their answers immediately.
Microsoft points to Google’s dominance in the AI market
Right now, it seems that Microsoft wants to take some of the heat off of itself and throw some on to other companies. This should come as no surprise, as the EU has been extremely strict and proactive about regulating competition and mitigating the risks of AI technology. So, if the EU is not happy with the way a company is operating, it will take action.
Microsoft submitted a report to EU antitrust regulators and talked about how Google’s access and business structure gives it an unfair advantage in the AI market compared to Microsoft. “Today, only one company – Google – is vertically integrated in a manner that provides it with strength and independence at every AI layer from chips to a thriving mobile app store. Everyone else must rely on partnerships to innovate and compete,” the company said in the report.
This argument definitely holds weight, as Google has access to a metric ton of data from users. It is an ad company that is not shy about scooping up consumer data. Also, it owns the rights to YouTube which is another massive source of data. This, and other factors, means that Google is well-positioned to be the top AI brand.
Microsoft also takes shots at Apple
It appears that Google isn’t the only company under Microsoft’s crosshairs. In the report, Microsoft also pointed to Apple. Apple has not made any palpable moves in the generative AI space as of yet. However, it appears that Microsoft wants to think ahead. In talking about Google, Microsoft referred to the fact that both it and Apple have voice assistants Google Assistant and Siri.
However, Microsoft did have a voice assistant back in the day called Cortana (it’s just that no one cared about it). So it’s a little bit weird on Microsoft’s part to point out its competitor’s voice assistants when it wanted to have the same thing.
Defending its partnership with OpenAI
Right now, the EU is locked on Microsoft, as the company has invested roughly $13 billion into OpenAI. That could possibly be seen as an anti-competitive move on the company. This is because not many other companies have the funds to invest such a substantial amount of money into a large AI startup. So, this could be seen as Microsoft throwing its weight around.
However, Microsoft defended its stance on partnerships such as these. In defending itself, Microsoft referred to Google’s and Amazon’s investment into Anthropic. This is a leading AI company, having just released Claude 3. Also, it referred to Canada’s Cohere (which received funding from Salesforce and Nvidia) and Mixtral (which received €15 million from Microsoft).
“All of these start-ups relied on different forms of investments and partnerships that enabled them to enter and expand in the space,” Microsoft said in the statement.
The company is saying that Microsoft’s investment into OpenAI is not anti-competitive, as startups like these basically depend on investments in order to thrive. Microsoft definitely has a point there, as developing AI technology is not a cheap endeavor whatsoever. Training tons of AI data to create AGI (artificial general intelligence) absolutely burns through money.
Microsoft helps that this will take some of the heat off of it, as competition in the AI market is set to heat up in the coming years
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