Competition Policy over the Generative AI Waterfall

Abstract

The emergence of generative AI signals that we have reached a global waterfall moment – an inflection point that will result in profound and wide-ranging changes for society and the economy. In this chapter, we use the waterfall metaphor and focus attention on the policy challenges that need to be confronted as we go over the falls toward the uncertain future beyond. This focuses attention on the essential role that digital infrastructure plays in making (gen)AI possible, in establishing the effective bounds of what may be accomplished with it, and in shaping our digital future. This infrastructure is the ship that is carrying us over the falls, and its steerage capabilities will prove essential to enabling any hope for regulating AI, including enabling effective competition policy in the future digital economy. Of critical importance to those steerage capabilities will be the success in building a sound measurement ecosystem.

Keywords: Generative AI, Competition Policy, Digital Economy, Digital Platforms, AI Policy, AI Governance