Britain's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has recently started to examine the effect of Artificial Intelligence on businesses and society. The CMA is looking to understand how foundation models, which use large amounts of unlabelled data, are developing. AI has the potential to upend the way businesses and society operate, and governments worldwide are now trying to find a balance between assessing and reining in the potential negative consequences of AI without holding back innovation.

Research on AI has been going on for years, and OpenAI's ChatGPT and Midjourney have recently highlighted a technology that could alter the way businesses and society operate. The EU's Digital Markets Act does not cover generative AI, but Italy recently took ChatGPT offline to investigate its potential breach of personal data rules, while others, such as the US, are looking at possible rules to regulate the technology

The CMA will likely seek to better understand AI rather than take any enforcement action against individual companies. It's crucial that the potential benefits of this transformative technology are readily accessible to UK businesses and consumers while people remain protected from issues like false or misleading information. The review in Britain echoes investigations taking place around the world, from Beijing to Brussels and Washington. The CMA also made headlines last week when it blocked Microsoft's$69 billion takeover of Activision Blizzard.