This doesn’t require AI, it happens anywhere that competing prices are easily available and fairly mutable.
It happens without AI to some extent, but if a lot of businesses will be setting prices via RL based systems (which seems to me likely), then I think it may happen to a much greater extent. Consider that in the example above, it may be very hard for the five barbers to coordinate a $3 price increase without any communication (and without AI) if, by assumption, the only Nash equilibrium is the state where all the five barbers charge market prices.
AI will be no more nor less liable than humans making the same decisions would be.
People sometimes go to jail for illegally coordinating prices with competitors; I don’t see how an antitrust enforcement agency will hold anyone liable in the above example.
It happens without AI to some extent, but if a lot of businesses will be setting prices via RL based systems (which seems to me likely), then I think it may happen to a much greater extent. Consider that in the example above, it may be very hard for the five barbers to coordinate a $3 price increase without any communication (and without AI) if, by assumption, the only Nash equilibrium is the state where all the five barbers charge market prices.
People sometimes go to jail for illegally coordinating prices with competitors; I don’t see how an antitrust enforcement agency will hold anyone liable in the above example.