Joint Statement on Competition in Generative AI Foundation Models and AI Products

As competition authorities for the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, we share a commitment to the interests of our people and economies. Guided by our respective laws, we will work to ensure effective competition and the fair and honest treatment of consumers and businesses. This is grounded in the knowledge that fair, open, and competitive markets will help unlock the opportunity, growth and innovation that these technologies could provide. Our experience in related markets suggests that, while competition questions in AI will be fact-specific, several common principles will generally serve to enable competition and foster innovation: 

1. Fair dealing. When firms with market power engage in exclusionary tactics, they can deepen their moats, discourage investment and innovation by third parties, and undermine competition. The AI ecosystem will be better off the more that firms engage in fair dealing.   
2. Interoperability. Competition and innovation around AI will likely be greater the more that AI products and services and their inputs are able to interoperate with each other. Any claims that interoperability requires sacrifices to privacy and security will be closely scrutinized. 
3. Choice. Businesses and consumers in the AI ecosystem will benefit if they have choices among diverse products and business models resulting from a competitive process. This means scrutinizing ways that companies may employ mechanisms of lock-in that could prevent companies or individuals from being able to meaningfully seek or choose other options. It also means scrutinizing investments and partnerships between incumbents and newcomers, to ensure that these agreements are not sidestepping merger enforcement or handing incumbents undue influence or control in ways that undermine competition. For content creators, choice among buyers could limit the exercise of monopsony power that can harm the free flow of information in the marketplace of ideas.