{"id":1442853,"date":"2023-12-08T12:45:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-08T17:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1442853"},"modified":"2023-12-08T12:45:00","modified_gmt":"2023-12-08T17:45:00","slug":"uk-antitrust-watchdog-examines-microsofts-partnership-with-openai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/uk-antitrust-watchdog-examines-microsofts-partnership-with-openai\/1442853\/","title":{"rendered":"UK Antitrust Watchdog Examines Microsoft’s Partnership With OpenAI"},"content":{"rendered":"

UK Antitrust Watchdog Examines Microsoft’s Partnership With OpenAI <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Microsoft and OpenAI’s multibillion-dollar partnership is under scrutiny from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority over potential competition concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a\u00a0statement<\/a>\u00a0Friday, CMA said it’s considering whether Microsoft’s partnership with ChatGPT-creator OpenAI is effectively a merger. It said it had begun an “information gathering process,” which typically comes before an investigation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“There have recently been a number of developments in the governance of OpenAI, some of which involved Microsoft. In light of these developments, the CMA is now issuing an ITC [Invitation to Comment] to determine whether the Microsoft \/ OpenAI partnership, including recent developments, has resulted in a relevant merger situation and, if so, the potential impact on competition,” CMA said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Last month, Sam Altman, founder of OpenAI, was abruptly terminated by the company’s board. However, he rejoined<\/a> the company a week later following a threatened mass exodus by most staff. This incident led to a shakeup of the board, resulting in Microsoft, which owns a 49% share in OpenAI, gaining one board member seat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

CMA also said the pace of AI technology is “unrivaled in economic history” and that conversational generative artificial intelligence chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Elon Musk’s xAI’s Grok represent a “pivotal moment in the development of this transformative technology.”<\/p>\n

“The invitation to comment is the first part of the CMA’s information gathering process and comes in advance of launching any phase 1 investigation, which would only happen once the CMA has received the information it needs from the partnership parties,” Sorcha O’Carroll, senior director for mergers at the CMA, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Microsoft President and Vice Chair Brad Smith responded to the CMA news, telling\u00a0The Wall Street Journal<\/a>:\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Since 2019, we’ve forged a partnership with OpenAI that has fostered more AI innovation and competition, while preserving independence for both companies. The only thing that has changed is that Microsoft will now have a non-voting observer on OpenAI’s board, which is very different from an acquisition.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

CMA has investigated Microsoft before. Earlier this year, it blocked the takeover of Activision Blizzard until Microsoft changed the deal to sell cloud gaming rights outside Europe to Ubisoft.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nFri, 12\/08\/2023 – 07:45<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/technology\/uk-antitrust-watchdog-examines-microsofts-partnership-openai<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UK Antitrust Watchdog Examines Microsoft’s Partnership With OpenAI Microsoft and OpenAI’s multibillion-dollar partnership is under scrutiny from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority over potential…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1442853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbimBl-63lP","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1442853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1442853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1442853\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1442853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1442853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1442853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}