BIG AI: THE CLOUD AS MARKETPLACE AND INFRASTRUCTURE

Abstract

Cloud infrastructure platforms underpin most of today’s internet, functioning as the operating system of the internet and representing the most important source of revenue for Big Tech companies. While most of the current hype around (“generative”) AI is focused on specific successful products and initiatives like OpenAI (ChatGPT, DALL·E 2) and Stability AI (Stable Diffusion), they would not have been possible without the significant infrastructural support and investments from Big Tech companies. This paper critically examines what we call Big AI, or those types and deployments of AI that simply would not be feasible or even possible without the infrastructural support, partnerships, or investments provided by Big Tech companies. To account for this, we articulate the key components of AI and how they are connected. By focusing on Big Tech’s own products and service offerings, third-party applications, and models, we gain a more comprehensive understanding of what Big AI is, or looks like today, and what it may become in the years to come—for which the infrastructure is being made right now. Further, we make a distinction between the cloud platform products and service offerings from Big Tech (i.e. the cloud as an infrastructure for AI) and Big Tech as the host or provided of marketplaces for diverse (AI-based) products and services from third-party businesses and developers (i.e. the cloud as a marketplace for AI). Overall, this research provides the basis for a better understanding of the critical political economy of (Big) AI.