I also think that it’s far from given that the option which would minimise consumer harm from monopoly would also minimise pressure to race.
An AI research institute spun off by the regulator under pressure to generate business models to stay viable is plausibly a lot more inclined to ‘race’, than an AI research institute swimming in ad money which can earn its keep by incrementally improving search, ads and phone UX and generating good PR with its more abstract research along the way. Monopolies are often complacent about exploiting their research findings, and Google’s corporate culture has historically not been particularly compatible with launching sort of military or enterprise tooling that represents the most obviously risky use of ‘AI’.
There are of course arguments the other way (Google has a lot more money and data than putative spinouts) but people need to predict what a divested DeepMind would do before concluding breaking up Google is a safety win.
I also think that it’s far from given that the option which would minimise consumer harm from monopoly would also minimise pressure to race.
An AI research institute spun off by the regulator under pressure to generate business models to stay viable is plausibly a lot more inclined to ‘race’, than an AI research institute swimming in ad money which can earn its keep by incrementally improving search, ads and phone UX and generating good PR with its more abstract research along the way. Monopolies are often complacent about exploiting their research findings, and Google’s corporate culture has historically not been particularly compatible with launching sort of military or enterprise tooling that represents the most obviously risky use of ‘AI’.
There are of course arguments the other way (Google has a lot more money and data than putative spinouts) but people need to predict what a divested DeepMind would do before concluding breaking up Google is a safety win.