US Justice Department Investigates Google’s Agreement with Character.AI
The US Department of Justice is looking into whether Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet, breached the Antimonopoly Act in its dealings with Character.AI.
Reports indicate that the antitrust authority recently informed Google about its investigation, suggesting that the company may have entered into an agreement with Character.AI to sidestep a more formal government merger review, as noted by sources familiar with the situation.
Last year, Google established a licensing deal with Character.AI, allowing the tech giant access to the Chatbot Maker’s extensive language model technology under a non-exclusive agreement.
Additionally, Google brought on board the co-founders of Character.AI, Noam Shazeer and Daniel de Freitas, both of whom are former Google employees.
A Google spokesperson stated, “We’re always willing to respond to questions from regulators. We’re pleased that the Character.AI talent has joined our team, but there’s no ownership stake, and they continue to operate as a separate entity.”
Neither Character.AI nor the DOJ responded promptly to requests for comments from Reuters.
The DOJ has the authority to examine whether the transaction could be seen as anti-competitive, even without a formal review process. According to the report, this antitrust investigation is still in its preliminary phase and might not result in any enforcement actions.
