Cloud over competition

Happy Tuesday and welcome back. Thanks for being an "early adopter". I have an early competition scoop to show my appreciation.

Happening Today 🗓️

Quizzed: Tech secretary Liz Kendall, her department's top civil servant Emran Mian and science minister Patrick Vallance face questions from the Lords’ Science and Technology Committee at 2pm. The peers are going to ask about AI obvs, but specifically: the future of work, regulation and governance, its use in government and the challenges of scaling British tech companies.

Yes, it is spring: Chancellor Rachel Reeves gives an update on the nation's finances at midday with her Spring Forecast, which the government has put a massive damper on. But the ever-cheery trade minister Chris Bryant is the main speaker at techUK’s trade conference on helping SMEs get into new markets. 

Rebuilding the State: The making-tech-policy-cool gang at TxP host a talk on Statecraft and State Capacity at 6pm. More upcoming events here. 

News In Brief 🩳

One to watch: A British AI lab founded by Cambridge academics came out of "stealth mode" this morning. Zettafleet is working on novel ways to train AI models. Sifted reports that its techniques could eventually challenge Nvidia's dominance.

Meta attack: MPs from all sides criticised Meta in the Commons last night for failing to take down a deepfake video of Conservative MP George Freeman "defecting" to Reform.

Grown-up conversation: The government's Responsible AI Advisory Panel met for the first time yesterday and appointed Jeni Tennison as chair. Members include the TBI's Laura Gilbert, Ashleigh Ainsley from Colorintech, Mumsnet founder Justine Roberts and the TUC's Adam Cantwell-Corn.

Power up: If you’re working on AI and energy, the government wants to hear from you for its AI strategy on the energy system. 

Pencil it in: Set aside some time if you want to do the chatbot and social media consultation. There are three versions to choose from (adults, parents and carers, and 10 to 21 year olds). The full adult version has 55 questions but you can helpfully skip some sections.

Cloud over the CMA 

The chair of the competition watchdog’s cloud inquiry has quit, saying he is frustrated at the slow pace of action against Microsoft and Amazon, while also citing concerns about its wider independence.

What I did last summer: Kip Meek chaired the independent cloud inquiry for the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) which recommended last summer that Microsoft and Amazon should face action to stem their dominance of the cloud market. The inquiry wanted the CMA to use its new digital markets powers to look at placing rules on the tech behemoths in areas like interoperability and, in Microsoft's case, software licensing. Both companies contested the findings.

How long have you got? But seven months later, the CMA is yet to take action. Its board will decide at the end of this month whether to follow the inquiry’s recommendation. That decision will come two-and-a-half years after the CMA first started looking at competition concerns in the cloud market.

Right, I'm off: Meek said that glacial progress combined with worries about the CMA’s independence led to his decision to quit almost a year before his term ends. He left in late January, but his departure has not been reported and this is the first time he has spoken about it. 

"I shared concerns at the time that the CMA was taking a long time to pick up the recommendations of our report. I'm still concerned that the pace is going slowly."

Independence curbed: He also fears reforms to how the CMA makes merger decisions would give too much control to the regulator's leadership. The CMA wants to move from a panel of independent members deciding merger investigations to a committee which includes CMA execs.

January hangover: Meek said that he had been worried about the watchdog's wider independence from government ever since its chair Marcus Bokkerink was removed by ministers last January. The government has appointed former Amazon UK boss Doug Gurr in his place.

Just updating: In response, a CMA spokesperson flagged a speech by its chief executive Sarah Cardell last week where she said: "Working in a policy-informed way should not be confused with improper political influence." They said reforming merger panels was about updating the way they work, while, on cloud, a decision would be made by its board by the end of March.

Thanks for reading, that's all for now, back tomorrow.

Tom