In March, the Federal Trade Commission hosted the inaugural Technology Forum by the International Competition Network (ICN) in Washington, D.C. The event gathered 21 competition agencies from countries including Brazil, Japan, South Africa, and Sweden.
Over two days, representatives discussed topics such as artificial intelligence (AI), commercial surveillance, privacy, and security. They shared best practices and experiences in building technical capacity within their agencies. As a result, two dozen agencies signed a joint statement on increasing tech capacity to keep pace with the digitization of the economy.
The forum highlighted diverse perspectives among ICN enforcers but also revealed significant overlaps in best practices and views on marketplace benefits and harms.
Participants noted downstream risks from market concentration and vertical integration within AI technology stacks. Concerns were raised about reliance on AI data and models developed under foreign norms. Some attendees mentioned budding startups in their countries but expressed uncertainty about how market concentration might affect smaller players' entry into the space.
Algorithmic pricing was another topic of concern. Participants discussed how companies use algorithms to set prices based on expansive personal data, potentially leading to consumer harm and competition issues. The opacity of these algorithms could enable collusion by creating barriers to detecting such behavior.
A language gap in AI models was identified as an issue for non-English speaking countries. While their data may be used to train generative AI models, these models often do not perform well with non-English inputs or outputs.
The potential for AI-enabled applications to increase fraud and scams was also highlighted. Participants noted that generative AI exacerbates impersonation scams, deepfakes, and deceptive advertising. The types of fraud vary across countries depending on past experiences with similar non-AI efforts.
Consumer surveillance by intermediary actors like data brokers was discussed as a threat to privacy, security, and competition. Participants pointed out that large-scale data collection for training AI models often limits access for others and creates hurdles for users wanting to switch providers.
Agencies are taking steps to build digital capacity and adopt practices to address tech-related enforcement challenges. Efforts include leveraging technical expertise within agencies to prevent, detect, and monitor harms proactively.
Participants illustrated various structures for integrating technologists into their agencies—sometimes embedded within specific units or centralized across the agency. Hiring practices for tech talent were noted as challenging due to competitive alternatives in industry, academia, civil society, and research institutions.
The forum underscored both technological promises and perils faced by multiple agencies worldwide. It provided a platform for sharing best practices to ensure technologists can help fulfill agency missions effectively.
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