Episode 4 - Todd Davies - Generative AI: Innovation or Infringement of Competition Law?

Former Google software engineer turned competition law scholar Todd Davies joins Anush and Kena to explore the legal battleground where AI meets antitrust. Drawing on six years inside Big Tech and his PhD research at UCL, Todd examines whether integrating generative AI into dominant platforms like WhatsApp and Google Search violates competition law through tying and self-preferencing. He unpacks the "foreclosure by enclosure" problem where publicly accessible knowledge gets locked inside proprietary AI systems and argues that tech giants had alternative design choices that wouldn't raise red flags. From Stack Overflow's existential crisis to Google's AI Overviews replacing website clicks, Todd makes the case for swift regulatory intervention before these integrations become irreversible. A must-listen for anyone wondering whether competition authorities can keep pace with AI innovation. See his paper on the topic here- https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5375544