AI monopolies exacerbate multiple existential threats – erodes democracy and threatens national security.
Sitaraman and Narechania 23 (Ganesh Sitaraman is the Director for Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator for Political Economy and Regulation and Tejas N. Narechania is a Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. His scholarly focus is on the institutions of technology law and policy, Antimonopoly Tools for Regulating Artificial Intelligence, https://cdn.vanderbilt.edu/vu-URL/wp-content/uploads/sites/412/2023/10/09151452/Policy-Brief-2023.10.08-.pdf, Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator for Political Economy and Regulation, 10-3-2023---gm)
National Security and Resilience. Concentration at critical points in the AI technology stack raises significant concerns for national security and resilience. With very few chip companies, the possibility that one foundry could be shut down due to a pandemic, weather event, war, or other emergency is significant.20 Such an event would cause supply chain challenges for both military and non-military critical infrastructure. Concentration in cloud computing raises risks too: An oligopoly of cloud providers, integrated up and down the AI stack and without interoperability between them, gives rise to substantial software supply-chain concerns. If a cloud provider is attacked in a cyberattack, or if a cloud provider’s warehouse is affected by a severe weather event, or even if an employee makes a simple mistake, dozens of AI applications—and the operations, services, and websites that depend on them—could shut down for hours, days, or longer.21 Just as concerning is that faulty foundation models, if offered by only one firm, can lead to widespread error that could be catastrophic in emergency situations.
Economic Inequality. Like concentrated power in other industries, an AI oligopoly is likely to further economic inequality. Concentration means that a small number of firms will capture the vast majority of the sector’s profits. And while it is too early to tell exactly how the introduction of AI at scale will change labor markets, it could very well create a “bifurcated job market that squeezes out the middle class.”
Democracy. An AI oligopoly can also contribute to democratic erosion. Concentration in AI may give a relatively small number of companies an outsized influence over the information ecosystem, complementing their outsized political influence through lobbying and other forms of political influence. Economic power also often translates into political power, as demonstrated by a voluminous literature in political science showing the extensive influence of the wealthy and interest groups on American politics.