Justice Department lawyers warned that Google’s search advantage is rippling into the AI race. This threatens to crush rivals as the groundbreaking antitrust relief phase began Monday against the high-tech giant.
Google has already used artificial intelligence as a “way to access search” and will continue to do so without government intervention, DOJ lawyer David Dahlquist said during the opening of a statement in a courtroom in Washington, D.C.
“This court’s remedy is positive and should not be ignored by anything on the horizon,” he said the government will call Openai and witnesses of confusion to consider how Google’s advantage has influenced the AI race.
The case is being heard by US District Judge Amit Mehta, who decides the appropriate remedy after Sundar Pichai-led Google ruled in August last year as the “monopolitan” of illegally controlling the online search market.
DOJ asked Mehta to force Google to sell his Chrome web browser. The Fed also said that Google should end tactics for payment companies such as Apple and AT&T and ensure that search engines are enabled by default on most smartphones.
Additionally, the Fed is seeking a court order requirement that Google share search data with rivals. They also pushed for a forced sale of Google’s Android operating system if the early court-ordered remedies were found to be ineffective after five years.
Shares in Google Parent Alphabet fell 3% in daytime trading amid widespread sales.
Google said it would appeal to the judge’s final decision after the relief package is decided.
The company claims that forced sales of Chrome and Android “break these platforms,” putting US national security at risk and that China could jump over the US to develop AI and other key technologies.
“When it comes to antitrust relief, the U.S. Supreme Court said ‘caution is important,’ Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vice president of Google Regulatory Affary, said in a blog post before the trial. We look forward to making our point in court. ”
Google officials reportedly were pressing Trump’s DOJ to facilitate the proposed relief package in the weeks leading up to trial.
A closure statement is scheduled for late May. Mehta’s final decision on how to fix Google’s monopoly on searches is expected by August.
The DOJ search case was first filed in 2020 during President Trump’s first term. He was brought to trial in 2023 under President Joe Biden.
In a speech outside the courtroom on Monday, DOJ antitrust Gail Slater confirmed the case that Google “unified our country” “a bipartisan consensus that strong antitrust enforcement against Big Tech is very necessary.”
Slater also rejected Google’s claim that breaking up somehow threatened US national security.
“Do you know what is dangerous? Google presents us to free our freedom of speech, our freedom of thinking, and the American digital market. Do you know you are irresponsible?
The DOJ search case relief phase began just days after Google experienced a major defeat in separate federal antitrust laws targeting its digital advertising business.
A federal judge ruled that Google operates two separate illegal monopolies over digital advertising technology. DOJ also asks for a breakup of the company in that case.
