Big tech's influence on AI research drives irresponsible development, position paper argues
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[Submitted on 27 Nov 2025 (v1), last revised 9 Jun 2026 (this version, v2)]
Summary
This position paper argues that big tech companies' growing and disproportionate influence in AI research is driving irresponsible AI development. It examines how big tech's focus on scaling and general-purpose AI systems conflicts with ethical, responsible, and sustainable AI development. The paper reviews negative environmental and societal impacts of AI linked to big tech's influence, discusses the underlying economic forces behind these actions, and calls on AI researchers to counter this influence through collective action and responsibility-based strategies.
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Key quotes
· 4 pulledThe accelerated development, deployment and adoption of artificial intelligence systems has been fuelled by the increasing presence of big tech in the AI field.
This position paper argues that irresponsible AI development is strongly driven by big tech's influence and involvement in the field.
Big tech's drive for scaling and general-purpose systems is fundamentally at odds with the responsible, ethical, and sustainable development of AI.
We invite AI researchers to counter big tech's influence in irresponsible AI development through strategies that build on the responsibility of implicated actors and collective action.
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