New York (AFP) – OpenAI is ready to buy Chrome if Google is forced to sell its popular browser as part of an antitrust trial, a top executive testified Tuesday, according to media reports. OpenAI product manager Nick Turley revealed the startup’s interest in the world’s most popular internet browser while testifying in court in Washington, DC. Turley spoke in front of a judge who will decide what remedies to impose on Google after making a landmark decision last year that the tech giant maintained an illegal monopoly in online search.
US government attorneys have urged Judge Amit Mehta to force Google to sell off its Chrome browser, arguing that artificial intelligence is poised to ramp up the tech giant’s online search dominance. Google countered in the case that the US government has gone way beyond the scope of the suit by recommending it be forced to sell Chrome and holding open the option to force a sale of its Android mobile operating system.
The legal case focused on Google’s agreements with partners such as Apple and Samsung to distribute its search tools, noted Google president of global affairs Kent Walker. “The DOJ chose to push a radical interventionist agenda that would harm Americans and America’s global technology leadership,” Walker wrote in a blog post. “The DOJ’s wildly overbroad proposal goes miles beyond the Court’s decision.”
A Bloomberg analyst has estimated the price of the Chrome browser, which has more than three billion users, at $15 billion or more. Turley said during his testimony that OpenAI had approached Google about integrating its search technology into ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence-powered digital assistant, but was rebuffed, according to media reports. Google is among the tech companies investing heavily to be among the leaders in AI and is weaving the technology into search and other online offerings.
The DOJ case against Google regarding its dominance in internet search was filed in 2020. Mehta ruled against Google in August 2024, and the tech giant has appealed.
© 2024 AFP
