The Irish Council for Civil Liberties has urged EU regulators to investigate Microsoft's collaboration with OpenAI. In response to the European Commission's invitation for comments, Civil Liberties Ireland submitted its position on February 2. The submission welcomes the investigation and presents a detailed argument against the Microsoft-OpenAI relationship. The document emphasizes that partnerships differ from mergers and asserts that Microsoft's involvement with OpenAI surpasses standard collaboration norms.
Several partner organizations, including Foxglove, Mozilla, and the European Digital SME Alliance, endorsed the committee's opinion. Throughout the submission, the committee contends that Microsoft's $13 billion investment in OpenAI and the recent leadership changes at OpenAI, involving the firing and rehiring of CEO Sam Altman, indicate a level of influence that goes beyond typical partnership dynamics.
The committee points out Microsoft's intervention in reversing OpenAI's decision to terminate Altman, offering employment opportunities to Altman and other OpenAI employees willing to join him. The committee suggests that the events in November 2023, along with other developments, strongly suggest that Microsoft has or has gained "decisive influence" over OpenAI.
In addition to corporate decision-making influence, the committee expresses concerns about Microsoft's potential monopoly power in the artificial intelligence industry. Microsoft's Azure cloud service serves as the infrastructure for certain OpenAI services. The committee has urged the European Commission to investigate whether Microsoft has ultimate technical control over ChatGPT and other services, arguing that such control could be detrimental to the market and consumers.
The submission contends that allowing major players to dictate AI development and leveraging existing monopoly power for future market entry could serve their profit margins but not the public interest. The partnership between Microsoft and OpenAI is also under scrutiny in the UK, where regulators are evaluating whether it should be classified as a merger under existing laws.
