Amazon and Microsoft: Convergence and the Emerging AI Technology Trajectory

Cecilia Rikap () and Bengt-Åke Lundvall
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Cecilia Rikap: City, University of London

Chapter Chapter 5 in The Digital Innovation Race, 2021, pp 91-119 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract In Chapter 4 , we analysed artificial intelligence (AI) as a technological innovation system (TIS) dominated by the tech giants. This chapter gives insights into the emergence and dynamics of this system. We explore the technological convergence between two tech giants with quite distinct origins using lexical analyses of these companies’ patents and scientific publications. We find that both Amazon and Microsoft have zoomed in their research and development (R&D) efforts on deep learning and neural networks as well as functional AI applications. We also find evidence of increasing centrality of harvesting, storing and processing data. R&D on cloud computing infrastructure is another area where both companies overlap. Given their dominant role in the AI TIS and the importance of economic factors in the selection of the cluster of technologies that constitute technological paradigms, we argue that these companies’ priorities are indicative of the prevailing directions within AI technological trajectories.

Keywords: Data-driven intellectual monopoly; Rent-extraction; Corporate innovation system; Amazon; Microsoft (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-030-89443-6_5

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-89443-6_5

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