KFTC's Generative AI and Competition Report: A Quick Overview

Abstract

The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) recently released its first policy report on generative AI, titled “Generative AI and Competition,” marking a significant step in clarifying the agency’s stance on emerging AI-related antitrust issues. This commentary summarizes key takeaways of the report and discusses some points for further consideration. The takeaways are distilled into six key points as follows: (i) vigilance over NVIDIA's dominance in the AI chip market; (ii) caution regarding AWS's cloud computing market leadership; (iii) concerns over data access and data exploitation; (iv) expertise poaching, expertise concentration, and 'acqui-hiring'; (v) issues in the foundation models market; and (vi) vigilance over vertical expansion by Big Tech. This report touches upon various globally discussed issues, drawing upon other agencies' study results. However, there are still some points not discussed in the paper, raising questions about their omission. Also, it is notable that the competition authority, KFTC, appears to walk a fine line between competition policy and protectionism throughout the document. Continued updates and further consideration of AI competition policy will likely be necessary.