UK competition agency, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), has called for comment on AI partnerships made by Microsoft and Amazon. 

Third parties who have insight into their partnerships have been invited to provide the CMA with information regarding Microsoft’s partnership with Mistral AI and Amazon’s partnership with Anthropic. 

Microsoft has come under further scrutiny from the CMA over its hiring of former employees of US AI startup Inflection AI. 

While the CMA stated today (24 April) that it has not made any official conclusions, it stated that it was examining the effects of these partnerships on the UK AI economy. 

The CMA affirmed that its invitation was part of a Phase 1 review of the partnerships and purely an information gathering process. 

Third parties will be able to submit their commentary until 9 May 2024. 

The CMA previously published a report identifying a web of over 90 AI partnerships and investments that it warned could consolidate a Big Tech monopoly over AI technology and research. 

On publishing the report in April, the CMA’s CEO Sarah Cardell stated that her organisation had real concerns over the state of the AI market. 

Joel Bamford, the CMA’s executive director of mergers, stated that it would assess any commentary provided by third parties objectively and impartially to determine whether Amazon and Microsoft’s behaviour followed UK regulations. 

“Foundation Models have the potential to fundamentally impact the way we all live and work, including products and services across so many UK sectors – healthcare, energy, transport, finance and more,” said Bamford. 

“So open, fair, and effective competition in Foundation Model markets is critical to making sure the full benefits of this transformation are realised by people and businesses in the UK, as well as our wider economy where technology has a huge role to play in growth and productivity,” he said.