Microsoft lays out commitments to competition with new AI Access Principles
Brad Smith, president and vice chair of Microsoft, details plans to make AI technology more accessible and ethical.
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What you need to know
Microsoft Vice Chair and President, Brad Smith, took to the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona to outline the tech giant’s commitment to accessible AI technology. Microsoft’s AI Access Principals feature an 11-point plan aimed at providing access and support for developers to AI models and tools while committing Microsoft to"providing broad technology access to empower organizations and individuals around the world to develop and use AI in ways that will serve the public good."
While debates rage over the ethics of generative AI, major tech companies like Microsoft have not held back on investing in the technology. Microsoft has thrown large sums of money behind language modeling startups likeOpenAI, of which Microsoft owns a 49% stake. These investments have begun to generate some concern, both from competitors and antitrust regulators, that Microsoft is positioned to squash competition in the burgeoning AI marketplace.
AI Access Tenets
In the last two weeks, Microsoft has invested more than $5.5 billion in AI data centers in Berlin and Madrid and penned a multi-year partnership along with a $16 million investment in French tech startup, Mistral AI. Microsoft also announced plans for AI skilling programs and launched a Tech Accord of 20 companies dedicated to combating deepfakes in elections through public awareness and education programs. Microsoft recently previewed a new tool using AI to protect consumers from scam calls and new technology to further advance the Open Gateway Initiative in a bid to improve developer access to AI services.
Smith’s framework for accessible AI technology begins with Microsoft’s core tenets as a provider of infrastructure and platforms for AI access, including the company’s responsibility toward innovation and competition. This particular tenet is an attempt to assuage the global regulators who have taken issue with Microsoft’s investment activities.
In the blog post detailing the AI access principles, Smith points to the limited availability of GPUs as the bottleneck for access to AI technology. In an acknowledgment that theGPUs that power AI data centersare primarily produced by one company, Smith declares that Microsoft is required to “live in the land of partnerships” to succeed.
Smith also acknowledges Microsoft’s responsibilities and obligations under the rule of law as one of its core tenets. Newlaws and regulations regarding the use of AIare cropping up in The European Union, the United States, and more countries around the globe. “We take these obligations seriously,” says Smith of the new legal challenges.
As part of the new AI access tenets, Microsoft has declared a commitment to furthering its partnerships by being “proactive and constructive.” These partnerships are an effort on the part of the corporation to get ahead of accusations that Microsoft could potentially squash competition by picking and choosing the startups to back.
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A similar argument was made by the UK’s regulatory authorities duringMicrosoft’s merger with game publisher Activision Blizzard King. To calm regulators' concerns, Microsoft was ultimately forced to sign an agreement givingcloud streaming rights to ABK’s catalog of games to Ubisoft. When it comes to AI, Microsoft has attempted to skirt this concern by providing seed funding to an array of startups around the world.
AI access principles
In addition to commitments to core tenets and partnerships to further improve access to AI, Microsoft laid out an 11-point plan to provide access and support for developers in an effort to improve models and applications that are created using AI innovations. According to Microsoft, this plan will foster competition by enabling access to software to developers globally.
Microsoft’s plan can be summed up as so:
Apart from antitrust concerns, the ethics of powering and sustaining the data centers required for AI technology has also been a source of contention. Microsoft’s leadership has insisted that the company is taking steps to ensure that the power draw to run AI models and data centers is sustainable, despite reports that the actualconsumption rate for Generative AI could power a small country. The company continues to look into alternative power sources to keep Azure data centers up and running, includingconsidering nuclear poweras a solution.
Thoughts on AI economy
Regardless of whether you love or hate AI, major tech players likeMicrosoftandGoogleand concernedmarket regulatorsalike see a future where the technology has carved out its own sector of the economy. The legislative process that is necessary to protect consumers and civilians from being taken advantage of by corporations in these scenarios often lags way behind the advancing technology.
While it still amounts to being a band-aid on a proverbial axe wound, Microsoft’s preemptive efforts to commit to standards of fairness and competition is a step in the right direction. What matters most, however, is that the “powers-that-be” in society put the checks and balances in place to ensure that those commitments are carried out as promised.
Cole is the resident Call of Duty know-it-all and indie game enthusiast for Windows Central. She’s a lifelong artist with two decades of experience in digital painting, and she will happily talk your ear off about budget pen displays.
