NEW YORK (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.