The shift
Advanced AI depends on access to computing, chips, skilled talent, data and distribution channels. Scale can improve products, but it can also concentrate leverage over prices, public services, creative markets and technical standards.
The opportunity
Open standards and competitive ecosystems can make innovation more accessible to smaller firms, researchers, schools and public institutions. Public procurement can reward verifiable performance and security rather than dependence on a single provider.
What to monitor
Compute availability, pricing, model portability, switching costs, procurement concentration, and whether developers can test claims independently. Distinguish a popular product from an uncompetitive market.
The public-interest response
Apply competition policy when warranted, require portability for public systems, support independent evaluations and civic infrastructure, and prevent procurement arrangements that make democratic institutions reliant on an unaccountable single vendor.