How Will National Security Considerations Affect Antitrust Decisions in AI? An Examination of Historical Precedents

Artificial Intelligence (AI)—like past general purpose technologies such as railways, the internet, and electricity—is likely to have significant effects on both national security and market structure. These market structure effects, as well as AI firms’ efforts to cooperate on AI safety and trustworthiness, may implicate antitrust in the coming decades. Meanwhile, as AI becomes increasingly seen as important to national security, such considerations may come to affect antitrust enforcement. By examining historical precedents, this paper sheds light on the possible interactions between traditional—that is, economic—antitrust considerations and national security in the United States.