An Arms Race to AI

An arms race.  Important point, Clouds bring the data, feed the results. 

Big Tech companies use cloud computing arms to pursue alliances with AI groups  in Arstechnca

Deals between Big Tech and "generative AI" startups raise competition concerns.

MADHUMITA MURGIA, FINANCIAL TIMES 

Big Tech companies are aggressively pursuing investments and alliances with artificial intelligence startups through their cloud computing arms, raising regulatory questions over their role as both suppliers and competitors in the battle to develop “generative AI.”

Google’s recent $300 million bet on San Francisco-based Anthropic is the latest in a string of cloud-related partnerships struck between nascent AI groups and the world’s biggest technology companies.

Anthropic is part of a new wave of young companies developing generative AI systems, sophisticated computer programs that can parse and write text and create art in seconds, that are rivaling those being built in-house by far larger companies such as Google and Amazon.

The technology behind products including OpenAI’s ChatGPT, a chatbot that can converse with users through text, requires enormous amounts of computing power—expensive infrastructure controlled by the same handful of tech giants.

“[This] is exactly the type of scenario that the Federal Trade Commission has said they’re going to focus on,” said William Kovacic, a former Republican chair of the US antitrust agency and a professor of antitrust law at George Washington University.  ... '