On October 5, 2023, in Athens, Greece, the Microsoft logo was displayed on the smartphone screen and the Amazon logo was displayed in the background.
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UK antitrust watchdog seeks views on partnership Microsoft and Amazon Partner with smaller generative AI model makers.
Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority said on Wednesday it was inviting interested third parties to comment on major artificial intelligence partnerships between Microsoft and French artificial intelligence company Mistral, Amazon and U.S. startup Anthropic and Microsoft’s hiring of former artificial intelligence Wisdom experts give their opinions.
The CMA is seeking views from interested parties until May 9 and is seeking to investigate whether arrangements between the companies qualify for a merger.
The invitation for comments is the first part of the information-gathering process before UK regulators launch a formal first-stage review. The CMA notes that the consultation does not mean the start of a formal Phase 1 review.
Microsoft recently invested €15 million ($16 million) in Mistral, a young French artificial intelligence company founded by former Microsoft employees. Yuan and GoogleDeepMind Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
Under the deal, Mistral – last valued at €2 billion by investors – will offer its large language models (LLMs) – the technology behind AI products – on Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform, making it the second After OpenAI hosts its LL.M. on Azure.
Meanwhile, Amazon invested $4 billion in American artificial intelligence company Anthropic, the company behind Claude’s large-scale language model and chatbot. Amazon said it will retain a minority stake in Anthropic and will not take a board seat.
Microsoft has disputed the assertion that its deal with Mistral and its hiring of employees from Inflection constitute a merger.
“We continue to believe that common business practices, such as hiring talent or partially investing in artificial intelligence startups, promote competition and are distinct from mergers,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement.
The spokesman added: “We will provide the UK Competition and Markets Authority with the information it needs to quickly complete its investigation.”
An Amazon spokesman said it was “unprecedented” for the CMA to review such a collaboration between the company and Anthropic.
An Amazon spokesperson said: “Unlike other collaborations between artificial intelligence startups and large technology companies, our cooperation with Anthropic includes a limited investment, will not give Amazon a director or observer role, and will continue to allow Anthropic to operate in multiple clouds. Run its model on the provider.
“By investing in Anthropic, which just released the new Claude 3 model, the best in the industry, we are helping to make the field of generative artificial intelligence more competitive than it has been in years. And, customers are very excited about the opportunity to work together and we believe that fact Will explain everything and hope that the CMA agrees to resolve this issue as soon as possible.
early review
The CMA’s early review of Microsoft and Amazon’s artificial intelligence partnership is another sign that UK regulators are seeking to take a tougher stance on big US tech companies and address the competition concerns they pose.
Taking last year as an example, the CMA Microsoft’s blockbuster $69 billion acquisition of video game maker Activision Blizzard has been on hold for months. Regulators initially moved to block the deal, fearing it would lead to a significant reduction in competition.
Microsoft later approved the deal after it made concessions to regulators, including a deal with Ubisoft that grants the French video game publisher licenses for existing Activision PC and console games as well as new games released by Activision over the next 15 years. Cloud rights.
Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that the CMA is seeking comment on the partnership between Microsoft and Mistral and the separate arrangements between Amazon and Anthropic.
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