Alphabet's Partnership with AI Startup Anthropic Faces UK Scrutiny

31 Jul, 2024

Alphabet's Partnership with AI Startup Anthropic Faces UK Scrutiny

Britain's antitrust watchdog is scrutinizing Google's partnership with AI startup Anthropic and its impact on competition. This comes amid global concerns from regulators over deals between big tech giants and smaller AI startups, spurred by the AI boom following OpenAI's release of ChatGPT. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is reviewing agreements including Microsoft’s partnerships with startups like OpenAI, Inflection AI, and Mistral AI, as well as Alphabet's ties with companies such as Anthropic and Cohere.

Anthropic, founded by ex-OpenAI executives Dario and Daniela Amodei, received $500 million from Alphabet, with a promise of an additional $1.5 billion over time, and uses Google Cloud services. The CMA is currently seeking views on whether the Alphabet-Anthropic partnership could lessen competition in the UK, with a deadline for comments set for August 13. Anthropic insists its independence is not compromised by these partnerships and has pledged to cooperate with the CMA. Google states its commitment to an open AI ecosystem, highlighting that Anthropic uses multiple cloud providers and retains its freedom to partner with others. The CMA will decide on launching an official investigation at the end of this process.