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Joanna Bryson, blathering (j2bryson@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 31-Jan-2024 18:55:56 JST Joanna Bryson, blathering

"the loadstar of efficiency is over" – Cristina Caffarra
@twitter@Caffar3Cristina
kicking off her annual #antitrust meeting https://www.bruxconference2024.com/event/f79d717d-15c4-485a-a60b-4c718e9490b0/summary Actually, at the beginning she said "people are asking me whether this is geopolitics NOT antitrust" and I laughed – enforcement is hard because companies are transnational. This is also why the EU is in the position to lead – centuries of war has brought us to establish expertise in transnational governance / regulation.
Note: it's live streamed!
In conversation about 10 months ago from mastodon.social permalink
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  Antitrust, Regulation and the Next World Order
  
  Cristina Cafarra. Brussels Conference Antitrust, Regulation and the Next World Order 2024
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  Joanna Bryson, blathering (j2bryson@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 31-Jan-2024 18:55:51 JST Joanna Bryson, blathering
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  How can someone say that we need regulation and also say we need no regulation in the actually functioning economy? This is the kind of regulatory interference that broke the US economy. Really angry about Mundt.
  But now we're on to Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, US FTC.
  She says we need competitive, honest markets that treat customers fairly. She doesn't think competition is a side dish, contra something I missed Olivier say earlier. #antitrust
  
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  Joanna Bryson, blathering (j2bryson@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 31-Jan-2024 18:55:51 JST Joanna Bryson, blathering
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  Slaughter: competition is core to governance, and we will effect competition whether with eyes open or shut.
  She again confounds AI with genAI, says everyone is trying to make sure they don't make the mistakes they made with social media, that's why they are talking about it so much (and that's what GAFAM wants them to do -- they are hemorrhaging money with genAI and don't really care where it goes, they care about their core products, which are entirely AI (search, recommendations). #antitrust
  
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  Joanna Bryson, blathering (j2bryson@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 31-Jan-2024 18:55:52 JST Joanna Bryson, blathering
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  OK now really Andreas Mundt who agrees with the previous speakers of this panel, it's about power, economists are overly surprised they can't just do what they want (he was funnier but I was still editing my mistakes and forgot the line). But there's more ways to do things now. Foreign competition / domestic subsidies. He thinks the DMA matters, we are making markets fairer but not contestable. #antitrust
  
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  Joanna Bryson, blathering (j2bryson@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 31-Jan-2024 18:55:52 JST Joanna Bryson, blathering
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  But Mundt is confusing #generativeAI with #AI which is problematic given the #AIAct is still getting contested. AI IS THE CORE TECHNOLOGY OF SEARCH AND RECOMMENDATION. IT IS CORE TO GOOGLE AND AMAZON, and ubiquitous in Apple and Microsoft! #antitrust
  But he's right that they will win, but he's very wrong that we don't need to regulate our own digital experience with the #DSA and #DMA. GAFAM do not monopolise AI, Europe is working, cf https://online.ucpress.edu/gp/article/2/1/24803/117647/Is-There-an-AI-Cold-War see the figures there.
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    Is There an AI Cold War?
    
    from @ucpress
    
    Regulation is a means societies use to create the stability, public goods, and infrastructure they need to thrive securely. This policy brief is intended to both document and to address claims of a new AI cold war: a binary competition between the United States and China that is too important for other powers to either ignore or truly participate in directly, beyond taking sides. We argue that while some of the claims of this narrative are based at least in part on genuine security concerns and important unknowns, evidence for its extreme binary nature is lacking. This absence of factual evidence is concerning, because related geopolitical tensions may be used to interfere with regulation of AI and agencies associated with its development. Here we first document and then analyze the extremely bipolar picture prominent policymakers and political commentators have been recently painting of the AI technological situation, portraying China and the United States as the only two global powers. We then examine the plausibility of these claims using two measures: internationally registered AI patents and the market capitalization of the companies that hold them. These two measures, while each somewhat arbitrary and imperfect, are often deployed in the context of the binary narrative and can therefore be seen as conservative choices in that they should favor exactly the “champions” of that narrative. In fact, these measures do not produce bipolar results: Chinese capacity has been exaggerated and that of other global regions deprecated. These findings call into question the motivation behind the documented claims, though they also further illuminate the uncertainty concerning digital technology security. We recommend that all parties engage in contributing to a safe, secure, and transparent regulatory landscape.
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  Joanna Bryson, blathering (j2bryson@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 31-Jan-2024 18:55:53 JST Joanna Bryson, blathering
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  Zingales sounds properly liberal, he wants everyone to be able to get a job regardless of their Israel/Palestine stance; #antitrust should facilitate this.
  In fact, antitrust is not enough, we need proper competition policy.
  Zingales: The EU should ally with India (! what about Africa?) it's the largest market. Dispersion of power
  Tommaso Valletti now gives a less exciting recital of the same history, but notably focusses on consultancy concentration & subsequent loss of innovation.
  
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  Joanna Bryson, blathering (j2bryson@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 31-Jan-2024 18:55:53 JST Joanna Bryson, blathering
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  - Helena Malikova
  Tommaso Valletti: So the practice of economics has become very narrow, and focussing on a couple of unproven models.
  If you believed the economics models, then no merger ever hurts prices, because either there is an efficiency or there isn't. He read an "academic meta study of approved mergers" the researcher she only looks at vetted mergers "she does the right thing" in 55% of cases the prices go up (is this our paper, @helenamalikova ?) Tossing a coin is a cheaper way to get this result :-)
  
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  Joanna Bryson, blathering (j2bryson@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 31-Jan-2024 18:55:54 JST Joanna Bryson, blathering
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  Guersent: the point of the DMA is to open the gate, to get some competition (isn't that what #antitrust is supposed to be for?)
  Schwab: well I'm glad we balanced national sovereignty well with coordination in the DMA.
  CC (wrapping up): I'm glad to hear we've learnt, but I'm sorry there wasn't more explicit admission of the size of the change.
  Guersent: we are defined by what we do, not what we say. He sits down in front of me & says "a lot of people say a lot of things" to his seatmate.
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  Joanna Bryson, blathering (j2bryson@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 31-Jan-2024 18:55:54 JST Joanna Bryson, blathering
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  CC to her next panel: #antitrust is not apolitical and pure, it is about power. Right? We cannot be apolitical, it is not neutral.
  Luigi Zingales: nice quote from some guy in 1947 about our job being dissipating power. Lots of name dropping I don't know & can't recognise through French accent sorry. "I'm opposed to both nazis and socialists, so I'm opposed to monopolies which helped spur both movements." So how did we get to technocracy from here?
  
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  Joanna Bryson, blathering (j2bryson@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 31-Jan-2024 18:55:54 JST Joanna Bryson, blathering
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  - Helena Malikova
  Luigi Zingales has a lot of amazing zingers, I can't record them fast enough. But basically he sounds like @helenamalikova on steroids. #antitrust Outside China, Apple & Google outside of China have 95% of apps, AI does not have much of a shot of being better (excuse me – all of GAFAM are based on AI, core to all their (software) products & all their services.)
  
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  Joanna Bryson, blathering (j2bryson@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 31-Jan-2024 18:55:55 JST Joanna Bryson, blathering
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  CC: "I want to go to the Amazon / iRobot deal" everyone laughs. I guess because roombas are seen as silly? "Don't go and buy a toy, just make it. If you can."
  There was a time when Google bought up Boston Dynamics and several others where they were seen as going after Amazon's robotics / delivery. But Google figured out robots are hard and are just trying to get their cars to work, AFAIK. Though cf Ocado, who fund robots research through grocery delivery. #antitrust
  
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  Joanna Bryson, blathering (j2bryson@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 31-Jan-2024 18:55:55 JST Joanna Bryson, blathering
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  CC: "but 5 years ago you wouldn't have worried about disadvantaging vacuum cleaners" she doesn't know about amazon & robots? cf previous toot. #antitrust Olivier Guersent:
  (her interviewee) we messed up whatsapp, the US messed up Microsoft, we've learnt more, know more.
  Andreas Schwab no, it's still about efficiency, nothing is changed. Blames digital being "beyond what we thought they could" as if digital is big exception. I doubt this.
  
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  Joanna Bryson, blathering (j2bryson@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 31-Jan-2024 18:56:22 JST Joanna Bryson, blathering
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  now Gina Cass-Gottlieb tells us Australia is also on this. They are also getting increased market concentration. Acquisitions are disproportionately made by the largest 1% of firms, who make more than half of all acquisitions. Good to have the reminder that antitrust is about the entire market, I hope Mundt is listening, but the AIA & DSA are NOT about #antitrust, they are about making sure AI products are safe (AIA) and that digital services do not manipulate users (DSA).
  
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