Can AI Raise Prices Without Colluding?

Opublikowano: 2026-10-15

Suppose every business provides its AI with the same instruction: maximize our long-run profits, but obey the law. The AI estimates demand, studies customer behavior, learns how competitors respond, and gradually discovers that some forms of aggressive competition are not very profitable. A price cut may trigger another price cut. A promotion may trigger a competing promotion. Attempts to steal customers may provoke retaliation. Eventually, each firm’s AI may independently decide to compete less aggressively. But there is no agreement. The AIs never communicate. Nobody fixes a price. In...