Winner takes all - What does fair competition look like in the AI industry?

Digital markets and platforms have long shown clear tendencies towards monopolisation. A small number of players dominate these markets - a problem that has been difficult to tackle from a German and European perspective to date.

Artificial intelligence, one of the most important innovations of our time and the next stage in the development of digitalisation, has gained momentum in the last two years. Even at this early stage, trends towards new monopolies or oligopolies are already emerging due to the high investment requirements and enormous hunger for data. Restricted competition can have a negative impact on price and performance for consumers. At the same time, questions of sovereignty and resilience are coming to the fore from a political perspective.

So where do we stand when it comes to competition in the age of AI? How can we prevent the familiar patterns of digital markets from repeating themselves in the AI sector and leading to a ‘winner-takes-all’ structure? And how do we create fair and accessible conditions for the use of critical resources in AI development?

The talk addresses these questions and highlights the key requirements for a fair and competitive AI industry. Together we will discuss how competition authorities can keep the market open and what role open source technologies can play in promoting a more balanced and sustainable AI ecosystem.

With the 100 Days event series, the Tagesspiegel, together with Cosmonauts & Kings, gathers bright minds to discuss the most pressing political issues in the midst of the crucial election campaign and government formation phase.

Speaker

Andreas Mundt
President, Federal Cartel Office

Maximilian Gahntz
AI Policy Lead, Mozilla Foundation

Dr Thorsten Käseberg
Head of Division Competition Policy, Antitrust Law, Competition Policy Issues of Digitalisation, Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection

Matthias Spielkamp
Managing Director and Co-Founder, AlgorithmWatch

Dr Annika von Mutius
Member of the Board, KI-Bundesverband, and Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Empion GmbH

The event will be moderated by Stephan-Andreas Casdorff (Editor-at-Large) and Miriam Schröder (Background); both Tagesspiegel.

We endeavour to achieve the greatest possible diversity and variety of perspectives when designing formats and casting panels. This cannot always be completely fulfilled due to scheduling conflicts of potential speakers. We ask for your understanding.