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File Name | S22-Policy-Stoa-16-NEG-ShermanAct.docx |
File Size | 59.14 KB |
Date added | October 11, 2021 |
Category | Policy (Stoa) |
Author | Vance Trefethen |
Resolved: The United States federal government substantially reform the use of Artificial Intelligence technology
Case Summary: The AFF plan tries to outlaw the use of Artificial Intelligence to set prices in a way that produces the effects of illegal collusion among sellers that would violate the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. Under the Sherman Act, it is illegal for sellers to communicate with each other to fix prices, since they’re supposed to be competing with each other. Consumers are harmed if suppliers stop competing. But companies are using AI to set prices, and the AI’s, even without communicating with each other (“tacit collusion”), modify prices in a way that brings about the same end result as if the suppliers were on the phone in a conspiracy to raise their prices without competing. In the status quo, “tacit” collusion (where suppliers change prices in reaction to each other, but without communicating or conspiring with each other) is perfectly legal. And in the status quo, communication between suppliers and explicitly conspiring about price changes is illegal under the Sherman Act.