German antitrust official: AI may strengthen the dominant position of large technology companies, regulators should be on guard against anti-competitive behavior

CTOnews.com, Oct. 10 (Reuters)-Andreas Mundt, head of the cartel office of Germany's antitrust regulator, warned that AI may strengthen the market forces of large technology companies, and regulators should be on guard against any anti-competitive behavior.

Mundt highlighted regulators' concerns that tech giants with large amounts of user data could gain a competitive edge in new technologies used in smart homes, online search, online advertising, cars and many other products and services.

"it is critical for competition authorities that this new technology does not further strengthen the dominance of large companies," Mundt told Reuters. "the danger is very big, because AI first needs two things: a strong server and a lot of data," he said. "large Internet companies have both."

CTOnews.com noted that Google, which developed Bard AI chat robots, and Microsoft, which has invested heavily in OpenAI, are competitors in artificial intelligence.