Thibault Schrauwen

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The American house of representatives has concluded that big tech companies such as Facebook, Apple, Google, and Amazon have misused their dominant position on a big scale. Hence, that is the reason that the American commission advocated for the split of Big Tech companies alike. However, what exactly did these tech giants do wrong?

The digital business model of tech giants

With regard to digital business models, the observation can be made that these big tech companies (Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook) are ecosystem drivers as they provide a platform to conduct business (Weil & Woerner, 2020). Furthermore, they have complete knowledge about their customer by the amounts of data they generated about their customers. It is interesting to see that certain of these technology companies (such as Amazon) gained significance by disrupting the market while pursuing a long-tail strategy (Hillesund, 2007).

The problem

The commission deems to prove that Google (regarding search engines) and Facebook (concerning Social Media) became monopolists through unauthorized practices. Furthermore, researchers claim that Amazon and Apple have “lasting and significant market power” that they partly forced by locking out competition through their platforms (De Tijd, 2020). The logical consequence is that competitors are discouraged to innovate. Thereafter, the privacy position of consumers is jeopardized by the dominant position of a handful of tech companies. It also becomes more difficult to find truthful news if only a few big companies are the spreaders of it.

Examples of wrongdoings

The report claims that Amazon frequently uses third-party sellers to assist in improving and selling their own products. Apple uses its presiding market position to benefit its own applications and hamper those made by rivals. Facebook preserved its monopoly through a chain of anti-competitive business practices. Specifically, it bought up potential rivals such as Instagram. The report states that Google had demanded smartphone manufacturers using its Android operating system should install Google’s chrome as its standard web browser (www.ft.com, 2020).

It can be concluded that Big tech companies did not always use the right means to obtain their market position. Obviously, the big tech companies have responded in a disapproving manner (RTL Nieuws, 2020). This raises some questions for me to you, the reader.

Do you think the report was fair and just? Do you think it is beneficial to society that these tech companies have so much market power? If sanctions are imposed, do you think these tech companies should be split up or do you think other sanctions must come into place? Which other sanctions should come into place?

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De Tijd. (2020). Amerikaanse commissie pleit voor opsplitsing Big Tech. [online] Available at: https://www.tijd.be/ondernemen/technologie/amerikaanse-commissie-pleit-voor-opsplitsing-big-tech/10256341.html [Accessed 10 Oct. 2020].

Hillesund, T. (2007). Reading Books in the Digital Age subsequent to Amazon, Google and the long tail. First Monday. [online] Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/11250/184283 [Accessed 10 Oct. 2020].

RTL Nieuws. (2020). Commissie VS wil techreuzen opsplitsen: Big Tech is te machtig. [online] Available at: https://www.rtlnieuws.nl/tech/artikel/5188715/commissie-vs-pleit-voor-opsplitsen-big-tech [Accessed 10 Oct. 2020].

Weil, P. Woerner, S.L. (2015). Thriving in an Increasingly Digital Ecosystem. [online] MIT Sloan Management Review. Available at: http://mitsmr.com/1BkdvAq [Accessed 10 Oct. 2020].

www.ft.com. (2020). Subscribe to read | Financial Times. [online] Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/ccf00858-30a2-49d3-9ae9-7db3f58773b0 [Accessed 10 Oct. 2020].

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New research by the VUB (Vrije Universiteit Brussels) proofs that Artificial Intelligence (AI) can successfully support policymakers against epidemics such as COVID-19. AI can potentially combine epidemiologic models with complex decision-making models that are capable to take into account factors such as human behavior. However, predicting this human behavior is incredibly difficult (Subrahmanian and Kumar, 2017). Therefore, the question arises: How can AI combine epidemiologic models with complex decision-making models to assist policymakers?

Reinforcement learning

Reinforcement learning is an AI technique that became famous after the world champion of the GO-game was defeated by the AlphaGo-program from Google Deepmind in 2017. Pieter Libin examines the epidemiological applications of this AI technique in his research (press.vub.ac.be, 2020). Reinforcement learning is particularly suitable to track complicated interactions. It includes cultural, behavioral, and societal factors to successfully determine prevention strategies to reach specified objectives in an epidemic.

The battle against pandemics with AI efficiency

AI allows proposing a targeted approach to actively combat an epidemic such as COVID-19 (press.vub.ac.be, 2020). The models can learn an optimal strategy that can for example consist of the mandatory wearing of mouth masks, and the vaccination of specific target audiences (given that there is a vaccination) (www.bruzz.be, 2020). Besides reinforcement learning, there are other machine learning (ML) techniques that can be useful against the battle of epidemics. ML techniques in combination with epidemiological and statistical models can predict how fast an epidemic can spread. Therefore, intensive care units can be determined that are extremely vital in hospitals. This way medical institutions are more prepared to make the necessary adaptions in their infrastructure in the eye of an epidemiologic storm. Additionally, Artificial Intelligence can assist in developing new medicines. Specifically, pattern recognizing techniques can make active connections out of bio-Informatica databases to contribute to the design of a new medicine against the virus.

COVID19

Current AI initiatives against COVID-19

The VUB has already come up with AI initiatives on both the university and international level. Together with the medical experts of the Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel (UZ Brussel), the VUB set up two different AI-driven projects. On the one hand, an analysis was made about how AI can contribute to more accurate long scans. On the other hand, there is the development of an AI application that doctors in intensive care can use to assist them in their decision making (press.vub.ac.be, 2020).

To conclude, AI techniques such as reinforcement learning and ML techniques in combination with epidemiological and statistical models can propose a targeted approach to combat epidemics. This gives policymakers grounded evidence to construct better policies against epidemics.

This topic is clearly of high interest to me. However, I was wondering what do you think about the ethical implications of the use of AI in the battle against COVID-19? Do you know other AI initiatives against pandemics such as COVID-19?

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[References]

press.vub.ac.be. (2020). VUB zet AI in tegen COVID-19. [online] Available at: https://press.vub.ac.be/vub-zet-ai-in-tegen-covid-19 [Accessed 7 Oct. 2020].

Subrahmanian, V.S. and Kumar, S. (2017). Predicting human behavior: The next frontiers. Science, 355(6324), pp.489–489.

www.bruzz.be. (2020). VUB onderzoekt het gebruik van AI om epidemieën in te dijken. [online] Available at: https://www.bruzz.be/wetenschap/vub-onderzoekt-het-gebruik-van-ai-om-epidemieen-te-dijken-2020-05-29 [Accessed 7 Oct. 2020].

Artificial Intelligence against COVID-19

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