ChatGPT’s Head of Product told a judge that its parent company OpenAI would be interested in buying Chrome, if Google is forced to sell it off. The U.S. Department of Justice had proposed that Google break off with Chrome, as a remedy to the ruling last year that Google is monopolist in online search. The remedies phase of the trial began on Monday. Google plans to appeal the ruling.
OpenAI Executive Nick Turley also stated that the company contacted Google last year about a potential partnership that would allow ChatGPT to use Google’s search technology. “We believe having multiple partners, and in particular Google’s API, would enable us to provide a better product to users,” OpenAI said in an email shown at the trial, according to Reuters. Google chose not to partner with OpenAI, and Turley said that “we have no partnership with Google today.”
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Turley also said that The DOJ’s proposal to make Google share search data with competitors as one means of restoring competition would help accelerate efforts to improve ChatGPT. He mentioned that Search is a critical part of ChatGPT to provide answers to user queries that are up to date and factual, and that ChatGPT is years away from being able to use its own search technology to answer 80% of queries.
In their opening statements on Monday, prosecutors raised concerns over Google’s search monopoly giving it advantages in AI, and that its AI products could be another way to lead users to its search engine. Google has said the case is not about AI, and that it faces robust competition from companies including Meta Platforms and Microsoft.
In August 2024, District Judge Amit Mehta found that Google protected its search monopoly through exclusive agreements with Samsung Electronics and others to have its search engine installed as the default on new devices. The company contemplated deals with Android phone makers such as Samsung that would provide exclusivity for not only its search app, but also for its Gemini AI app and Chrome browser, according to a document shown at trial.
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Instead of entering more exclusive agreements, however, Google loosened its most recent deals with device makers Samsung and Motorola and wireless carriers AT&T and Verizon, allowing them to load rival search offerings, other documents showed. While these non-exclusive agreements are in line with Google’s remedies to address Mehta’s ruling, the DOJ wants the judge to go farther, banning Google from making lucrative payments in exchange for installation of its search app.