Microsoft, Meta and Google are snapping up small AI players

April 20, 2024 The Guardian

What’s going on here? After all, the tech giants have their own “foundational” AI models and have no need for whatever the minnows have built or are building. And then the penny drops: we’ve seen this playbook before – incumbent firms spotting potential competitors in their infancy and snapping them up. Google buying YouTube in 2006, for example; Facebook picking up Instagram for $1bn in 2012. when it only had 13 employees, then acquiring WhatsApp in 2014 (for what then looked like an insane sum – $19bn).

In a speech delivered to a gathering of American antitrust lawyers in Washington just over a week ago, the CEO of the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), Sarah Cardell, gave notice that it was determined to ensure the markets for foundational AI models would be underpinned by fair, open and effective competition, as well as by strong consumer protection.

She warned the CMA would be taking action through its formidable investigative powers – including merger control reviews, market investigations, and potential designation under new digital competition legislation.

To read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/20/the-big-tech-firms-want-an-ai-monopoly-but-the-uk-watchdog-can-bring-them-to-heel