Cooperation between companies developing artificial intelligence (AI) can help them create AI systems that are safe, secure, and with broadly shared benefits. Researchers have proposed a range of cooperation strategies, ranging from redistributing “windfall” profits to assistance to address the harmful dynamics of a competitive race for technological superiority.
A critical tension arises, however, between cooperation and the goal of competition law, which is to protect the very process of competition between rival companies. Whilst these potential conflicts are significant, they are currently underexplored in the literature. This paper examines the relationship between proposed forms of AI cooperation and competition law, focusing on the competition law of the European Union.
