UK competition watchdog launches review of AI market

Enlarge (credit: Sean Gladwell via Getty)

The UK competition watchdog is launching a review of the artificial intelligence market, including the models behind popular chatbots such as ChatGPT, as the industry comes increasingly into global regulators’ crosshairs.

Sarah Cardell, chief executive of the UK Competition and Markets Authority, said the watchdog would examine so-called foundation models—such as the software underlying ChatGPT—and “how the markets around those models are developing.”

She told the Financial Times that the regulator would assess “the real opportunities there” but also “what kind of guardrails, what principles, we should be developing in terms of ensuring that competition is working effectively [and] consumers are being protected.”