The Competition Bureau hosted “Canada's Competition Summit 2024: Market Dynamics in the AI Era,” an event with participants including lawyers and law students, on Sept. 16.
The full-day event, held in-person in Ottawa and virtually, also brought together competition authorities, regulators, businesses, non-governmental organizations, and academics to explore the economic implications of artificial intelligence (AI).
This summit marked the fifth time the Competition Bureau Canada hosted this annual event.
“The Competition Bureau continues its work to better understand AI, how it might affect competition, how to address its potential competitive harms, and how to promote competition in AI markets,” said the Competition Bureau in its news release, which listed all the events scheduled for the summit.
The summit featured a virtual keynote address by Lina Khan, who chairs the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. Joel Blit, an economics professor at the University of Waterloo, provided an overview of AI's impact on the market titled “AI and competition 101,” the news release said.
Panels and discussions
Independent Senator Colin Deacon moderated the opening panel, “The AI Effect – How is AI changing the competition game?” This first panel discussed AI's impact on competitive dynamics in the marketplace.
The panelists included Jennifer Quaid from the University of Ottawa, Robert Clark from Queen’s University, Robin Shaban from Deetken Insight, and Benjamin Bergen from the Council of Canadian Innovators.
Next was the “Fireside chat: The rise of AI – Risks for consumers,” which focused on the current and future risks posed by AI to consumers. Vasiliki Bednar of McMaster University moderated the chat with Siddharth Hiregowdara of CivAI.
The “Canadian Regulators Roundtable: A whole-of-government approach to digital markets” delved into how competition intersected with privacy, telecommunications, and cultural considerations. Alexandra Posadzki from The Globe and Mail moderated the session.
Participants included Matthew Boswell, Canada’s competition commissioner; Philippe Dufresne, federal privacy commissioner; Vicky Eatrides, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission chairperson and chief executive officer; and Drew Olsen, vice-chair and CEO of the Copyright Board of Canada. Olsen holds a law degree from the University of British Columbia.
The second panel – titled “International approaches to competition and AI” – explored how competition authorities in different jurisdictions addressed AI. The moderator was Ellen Creighton, assistant deputy commissioner of the Competition Bureau Canada.
The panel included Carlota Reyners Fontana of the European Commission, Carlos García Cueva of the Mexican Federal Economic Competition Commission, Ori Schwartz of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and a representative from the U.S. justice department.
The final session – called “Yea or Nay – Can Big Tech be trusted with AI?” – was a debate on whether big tech companies could be trusted with AI. Majid Charania, compliance director at the Competition Bureau, was moderator.
The debate featured participants including Brianna Workman, a law student at the University of Ottawa; Keldon Bester, executive director and co-founder at the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project; Umang Khandelwal, associate at Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP; and Makaila Kelly, a law student at the Lincoln Alexander School of Law.