The Challenges of Responsible AI: When Trust Becomes Scarce

For much of the past year the debate over AI has been framed as a contest between regulation and innovation, as if the two pull in opposite directions. This op-ed argues that the framing misses the current dynamics of the industry.

AI is built on concentrated infrastructure with high fixed costs and on a small number of cloud companies already holding strategic positions across the market. Trust in systems and companies has become an economic advantage, and one at risk of hardening into a competitive moat that only the largest providers can cross. The piece sets out what a settlement that pushed trust obligations upstream might look like.