Competition - Accelerating Innovation

Kevin Frazier

Guiding Questions

How do historical examples like the Microsoft and AT&T antitrust cases inform current debates about promoting innovation while preventing anti-competitive behavior in AI development?
What are the relative merits of "permissionless innovation" versus more structured industrial policy approaches in accelerating AI progress while managing potential risks?
How should policymakers balance federal support for AI innovation (through initiatives like NAIRR) with concerns about market concentration and competition from both established tech companies and new entrants?

Guest

Adam Thierer

Required

Facts

[pages 1-21] Adam Thierer, Permissionless Innovation: The Continuing Case for Comprehensive Technological Freedom, Mercatus Center (March 11, 2016).
Adam Thierer, Open-ended antitrust is an Innovation Killer, The Hill, (Feb. 25, 2021).
WSJ video, What Facebook, Google and Others Can Learn From Microsoft’s Antitrust Case, WSJ (2019).
Christopher S. Yoo, The Enduring Lessons of the Breakup of AT&T: A Twenty-Five Year Retrospective The Enduring Lessons of the Breakup of AT&T: A Twenty-Five Year Retrospective, University of Pennsylvania Law School (Dec. 2008).
[skim 6-12, read pages 12-15 starting at AT&T, 23-24] Robert W Crandall and Clifford Winston, Does Antitrust Policy Improve Consumer Welfare? Assessing the Evidence, Brookings (Apr. 2004).

Law

[read “Common Interpretation”, skim “For a Broad Spending Power” and “Putting the 'General' Back in the General Welfare Clause”] Samuel R. Bagenstos and Frank G. Millard, The spending Clause, American Constitution Center
Anshu Siripurapu and Noah Berman, Is Industrial Policy Making a Comeback?, CFR (Sept. 2023).
[skim] Ruchir Agarwal, Industrial Policy and the Growth Strategy Trilemma, IMF (Mar. 21. 2023).

Application

Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, The Little Tech Agenda (Jul. 5, 2024).
Jason Bates, U.S. NAIRR pilot brings cutting-edge AI resources to researchers and educators across the nation, NSF (Oct. 16, 2024)
Ganesh Sitaraman and Natalie Foster, How States Can Keep Big Tech from Dominating AI, Politico (Mar. 13, 2024)

Optional

Jennifer Huddleston, The Misguided Antitrust Investigations in AI, Cato Institute (Sept.13, 2024)

This book, and all H2O books, are Creative Commons licensed for sharing and re-use with the exception of certain excerpts. Any excerpts from the Restatements of the Law, Principles of the Law, and the Model Penal Code are copyright by The American Law Institute. Excerpts are reproduced with permission, not as part of a Creative Commons license.