- The Department of Justice is cracking down on anticompetitive uses of artificial intelligence.
- The Department of Justice has been investigating RealPage since 2022 for allegedly using AI algorithms to set inflated prices.
- The investigation comes amid a broad antitrust crackdown on big tech companies by the Biden administration.
AI can make many things easier for businesses, including pricing.
The Department of Justice is now beginning to crack down on such anticompetitive uses of hot new technologies.
This means that actions such as setting above-market prices, colluding with rivals, and entering into exclusive deals are illegal, whether there is a human or an algorithm behind them.
The Department of Justice has been concerned about the impact of AI on antitrust litigation for at least the past few years.
For example, since 2022, the company has been investigating rental property management software company RealPage for allegedly using AI algorithms to set prices above competitive levels.
Department of Justice The company said it used sensitive personal information in its algorithms with the expectation that its competitors would do the same, and that this behavior should be judged according to the same guidelines as humans. “Automating anticompetitive practices does not make them less anticompetitive,” the agency said in a statement. 2023 Statement.
The focus on anticompetitive uses of AI comes amid a series of broad investigations and antitrust lawsuits launched by the Biden administration against major tech companies, including Google, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft.
In the longer term, algorithms may become even more important in litigation because they can process more information than humans can.
“If the AI is fixing prices, you are equally liable,” Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kantor told The New York Times about the RealPage investigation. “If anything, it's the use of AI and algorithm-based technology that should be of more concern to us, because fixing prices is much easier when you're outsourcing to an algorithm than it is when you're sharing manila envelopes in a smoke-filled room.”
This means there could be increased regulation of AI use and stronger penalties for its misuse.
Speaking at the American Bar Association's annual conference on white-collar crime in March, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said the Justice Department's focus on AI means prosecutors will seek “tougher penalties” for individuals and companies that use AI to commit white-collar crimes, according to the Associated Press.
And compliance officers who ensure companies are complying with legal regulations “should take note,” she said. “When prosecutors evaluate a company's compliance program, as with any corporate resolution, they will consider the extent to which the program mitigates the company's most significant risks — and for an increasing number of companies, those risks include the risk of AI misuse.”
