Linda Griffin, Vice President-Public Policy, Mozilla

Why does the ex-ante vs ex-post discussion matter in the AI age?

Amlani:In the AI age, it actually matters even more. An ex-post approach is very slow and may take many, many years to get a resolution to a case where the remedies are often ineffective. The harmed competitor has already been pushed out of the market and there is a dominant player. There are growing movements globally looking at ex-ante regulations to limit the number of harms, intervene quickly and effectively in those markets.

The foundations of digital markets are quite wonky, they are concentrated. AI being built on top of these markets is like building a house on top of wonky foundations. If we fail to act, we will recreate the same mistakes and have power concentrated in a small number of powerful tech companies. Local players will not be able to compete and consumers will be deprived of choice. Innovations of Indian start-ups won’t reach Indian consumers in the way that they should.

Griffin:A lot of big players haven’t found the right business models to generate profit. So, we know their business models are going to change. That is a risky scenario for most start-ups building or looking for interoperability. There’s no control over the terms. We’d rather people have more ability to own, rather than to build AI and have more rights around minimum requirements for interoperability.

Do you see the growing ex-ante movement trickling down into India?

Amlani:There is a growing clamour for intervention because people are building start-ups and realising that it’s very difficult to compete. It’s not necessarily the loudest voice at the moment, because ultimately as founders, you’re just trying to build as quickly as you can. Providing a route for start-ups to share these pain points would also help shape the regime because you can build it for them to safeguard one of the most thriving and vibrant start-up ecosystems in the world.

How does Mozilla envision a level-playing field?

Amlani: There’s not a one-size-fits-all in terms of how you deal with ex-ante regulation and what form it takes. It should suit the particular market. India can allow this techno-legal approach to continue but equally give the regulators or authorities the ability to intervene and ensure choice in interoperability and innovation for local companies. That’s the kind of balance that you want to achieve, and we think that’s completely possible.

What tweaks or changes would you suggest for the Competition Bill in India?

Amlani: One of the key things is working out the right thresholds. What is the level of market concentration, market power that you want to capture in the bill? Where do you want to set the thresholds? We think they should be high so that they can allow companies to grow and to innovate without fear of being captured. It should only capture the most powerful companies. Then what are the products that you want to regulate? There are operating systems, browsers, search, AI assistance. The final question is: what obligations do you think should be applied? Looking to the UK regime, that doesn’t have to be set out in advance. You can say these are the types of obligations that you might want to impose on a particular company and product if they meet these thresholds and then allow that to happen on the ground with tailored codes of conduct.

Is there a concern that the underlying monopolies will compound amidst AI innovation?

Griffin: There are a number of key choke-points in the stack like operating systems that are very difficult to enter. You have to interject interoperability and choice by allowing all third parties to get in front of consumers, overcoming the pre-installation and defaults issues that you have in the space. You let consumers know what choices are out there because once they understand there is choice in everyday web experience, they will start using others. That is really good for start-ups and scale-ups. That will lead to more investment. The push is how do you show them that there’s more to use because the business models are so tied up. For example, if you’re an Indian LLM provider and you want to provide your assistance within WhatsApp, it’s currently difficult without interoperability.

How does this impact affordability for consumers?

Amlani: If you have more choice, you have competition, that means that each of these providers are competing to reduce prices, increase quality and to innovate. And so, that we think that providing competition in this space is better for consumers and would help with affordability.