A federal judge issued a groundbreaking ruling last year, saying Google has become an exclusive internet search player. However, at a hearing that began last week to understand how to solve the problem, the emphasis was on the frequently different technology: artificial intelligence.
Last week in U.S. District Court in Washington, a Justice Department lawyer argued that Google could use search monopoly to uncover internal debates regarding AI Google executives expanding the scope of its AI chatbot, Gemini. Executives from rival AI companies also said Google's power is a barrier to success.
On Wednesday, the first substantive question was raised to Google CEO Sundar Pichai. After he stood, subjects also appeared on AI over 20 times through 90 minutes of testimony.
“I think it's one of the most dynamic moments in the industry,” Pichai said. “I've seen the home screens of users, including seven to nine applications of chatbots they're trying out and playing and training.”
Antitrust lawsuits on the past effectively turned into a fight about the future as the government and Google proposed changes to the tech giant's business that could change the course of AI racing.
For over 20 years, Google's search engines have dominated the way people get answers online. Now, federal courts are essentially working on whether the Silicon Valley giants will rule the next era of how people get information on the internet as consumers turn to new chatbot harvests to answer questions, find solutions to problems and learn about the world.
During the hearing, government lawyers argued that Google's exclusive search tactics could be applied to make Gemini Chatbot a ubiquitous AI product. The government cannot allow the emerging sector of AI to ensure that consumers have product options for future use.
Google has argued that Openai's rapid growth (an AI startup that helps power Apple's AI products on iPhone) does not need courts to step in as other rivals show that the market is already competitive.
Judge Amit P. Mehta, who decides to fix search cases, could rebuild the fierce contest and lead the technology by purchasing these AI debates. Google is already a leading AI player, and Gemini attracts over 350 million active users each month. Measures to hamper that effort or support competitors will have a major impact on their race.
The government has asked the court to force Google to sell its Chrome browser and to share data with rivals, including search results and ads, including other measures.
The government's demands to correct monopoly are inherently looking to the future, seeking to cancel long-standing competition and open the market to new rivals. From the government's perspective, “You don't want to spend five years, and you don't want to bring about cases that don't actually do anything and bring about resources for many agencies,” said John Newman, deputy director of the Competition Bureau during the Biden administration.
A Google spokesperson pointed to the opening statement of John Schmidtlein, the company's lead lawyer. He said the artificial intelligence market is “extremely competitively performing.” The Department of Justice declined to comment.
This year's hearing follows a 2024 ruling that Google illegally protected its monopoly by paying search engines to companies like Apple, Mozilla and Samsung and automatically appearing on web browsers and smartphones.
Since the start of the hearing, government lawyers have put AI at the forefront and center.
The first witness of Professor Gregory Dullett, an associate professor of computer science at the University of Texas, offered Judge Meta the AI crash course, and Judge Mefta asked how chatbots worked and how they were incorporated into Google's products.
The government presented a document showing that last year Google thought Google would have considered an arrangement between wireless carriers and smartphone manufacturers and would have given the Gemini Prime placement on the device along with the search engine. This was reminiscent of a transaction Google signed to get a search engine prime placement.
Google has decided not to proceed with its Gemini plan using wireless carriers and smartphone makers after a judge's search ruling last year. Eventually, they reached a separate deal with Samsung, and placed Gemini on Samsung's smartphone, documents showed.
Google executives testified that their agreement with Samsung gave smartphone makers the ability to work with other AI services. Pichai testified that the company is focused on signing transactions in line with its own relief proposal, saying that smartphone manufacturers need to have more freedom to decide which Google apps to install.
Executives from rival AI companies such as Openai testified that the government proposed changes to Google's business will make it easier to build products and reach consumers.
Nicholas Turley, product head of Openai's ChatGPT, said his company deployed a prototype search tool called SearchGPT in July, asking Google to do a transaction to access the data. However, according to an email from Openai executives, Google rejected Openai because it was “too complexity.”
“Given the competitiveness of some of our products, we knew that Google might not be encouraged to provide us with good terms,” Turley said. He added that if Judge Mehta asks Google to share more data with Openai, the company can “build better products faster.”
Openai is also interested in purchasing Google's Chrome browser if it is scheduled to be sold, Turley added.
(The New York Times sued Openai and its partner Microsoft over copyright infringement of news content related to AI systems. They denied fraud.)
Dmitry Shevelenko, chief business officer of AI search startup confusion, testified that his company tried to reach a deal with the telephone company to automatically provide a chatbot, one of whom had already had an arrangement with Google.
The company “really loves our assistants and thinks it's great for users, but we can't change the default assistant on our device because we can't get out of Google's obligations,” he said.
Google's lawyers retorted that the company has not locked smartphone makers into overly restrictive transactions to provide Gemini. They reiterated that many AI companies are thriving and refer to data showing that ChatGpt is more widely used than any other chatbot.
“I think ChatGpt is doing well without any remedies in this case,” Schmidt-to-in said in an opening statement. “These companies are competing well without plaintiff relief.”
