08 April 2024

Generative AI: data intermediaries as guarantors of a balanced and ethical data market

Faced with the rapid and global emergence of Generative AI, AID (Association pour l’Intermédiation de Données) affirms the importance of data intermediaries in terms of the ethical aspect of exchanges, respect for the rights of data holders and compliance with competition law. This position is at the heart of its contribution to the public consultation on “Generative AI” launched by the French Competition Authority between February and March 2024.

Data intermediaries: a response to the risks of distortion of competition

As trusted third parties, Data Intermediation Service Providers (DISPs) respond to the risks of an asymmetrical market: that of data holders (of which VSEs/SMEs are part) faced with a very limited number of generative Artificial Intelligence publishers, constituting a de facto oligopoly.
Providing a structural and technological response to the risks, for example, of locking access to data or its lack of portability, PSIDs orchestrate secure data transactions that are transparent from a legal, commercial and technical point of view.

“Data intermediation providers have an essential role to play in establishing a balanced data market between data holders and data users, at a time when trust and transparency are key elements in developing this market in compliance with European regulations and values”

Sébastien Picardat, Chairman of AID and CEO of Agdatahub

SREN law: data intermediaries, a regulated status

The status of data intermediary is a recent role, regulated in France by Arcep (according to the Securing and Regulating the Digital Space law adopted by the joint committee on 26 March 2024) and stemming from European regulatory developments (Data Governance Act and IA Act). This role guarantees the free circulation of data within the European Union, while respecting the rights of data holders and competition law between data holders and users.

While AID recognises that, in order to function, the Generative AI sector needs mass access to personal and non-personal data, this can only be done, in regulatory and structural terms, through a secure framework in which data holders agree to make their data accessible to Generative AI publishers (as users). This is the raison d’être of Data Intermediation Service Providers (DISPs).