NEW YORK, Sept 18 (Reuters) - U.S. antitrust enforcers

are on guard against anticompetitive behavior in the artificial

intelligence sector as part of the Trump administration's plan

to cement U.S. AI dominance, a Department of Justice official

said in New York on Thursday.

Protecting competition in the industry supports innovation,

Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater said at a conference at

Fordham University, signaling that President Donald Trump's

antitrust enforcers are looking out for anticompetitive conduct

and consolidation.

"The competitive dynamics of each layer of the AI stack and

how they interrelate, with a particular eye towards exclusionary

behavior that forecloses access to key inputs and distribution

channels, are legitimate areas for antitrust inquiry," she said.

Access to data is one area the DOJ will monitor, Slater said. A

judge in Washington recently ordered Alphabet's Google

to share some of its search data with competitors including AI

companies, in order to boost competition with its online search

engine. Google has said it will appeal.

Slater said that demand for data could drive mergers or

business combinations between companies and their suppliers,

known as vertical integration, "especially in industries where

downstream businesses may have access to valuable and sensitive

data like healthcare data."

"We may also increasingly see the desire to acquire data, or

to deprive rivals of data, play a role in driving transactions,"

she said.

Slater also said that open source AI models can boost

competition, something Trump's AI action plan envisioned as a

way to spread American technology.

"Of course, a truly open-source model must be one that is

not unilaterally maintained by a single vendor that exerts

unwarranted influence and impose restrictions," she said.

Antitrust enforcers during President Joe Biden's administration

expressed similar concerns about AI competition, and scrutinized

Big Tech partnerships with AI startups.