Favouring competition must be a top priority in the race for AI development

For the EU to be truly competitive in the field of Artificial Intelligence, we need to make sure the tools to build it are accessible to companies of all sizes. This is one of the core conclusions of the Renew Europe-led event “How to avoid Big Tech´s monopoly on AI? Making artificial intelligence available to all”, held in the European Parliament today. The challenges and opportunities posed by AI to European businesses, the need to avoid monopoly and market abuse by Big Tech and how to foster innovation and EU competitiveness in the AI sector have been some of the main topics addressed during the seminar. Hosted by our MEP and Coordinator for Economic and Monetary Affairs Stéphanie Yon-Courtin, and with the participation of MEP Karen Melchior, Renew Europe’s negotiator on the AI Act for JURI committee, the forum also featured contributions from Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for the Digital Age and Competition, and some leading experts.

The panellists underlined the need to expand the scope of Digital Markets Act to generative AI and the importance of reinforcing the international cooperation between competition authorities to promote competition in digital markets. In addition, they called for stronger antitrust measures and closer attention to potential mergers or killer acquisitions to prevent a few large companies from taking over the development and deployment of AI. In short, fair competition, a level playing field, promotion of innovation, with specific mention of AI SMEs and start-ups as the backbone of the EU economy, must be the recipe for the EU success in the race for AI development.

MEP Stéphanie YON-COURTIN (L’Europe Ensemble, France), Renew Europe´s Coordinator on Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON), stated:

"Artificial Intelligence is already a disruptive reality in countless sectors: environment, energy, health or agriculture, among others. However, its true potential as a vector of economic development lies in making it accessible to all types and sizes of companies. We have all the existing tools with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and EU competition policy to make sure it happens while boosting EU competitiveness. Let us not recreate the same GAFAM (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple y Microsoft) in the AI sector nor allow a handful of companies to control this technology that has massive impact on our daily lives”.