Chatgpt’s head said in a court hearing Tuesday that Openai is interested in buying Google’s Chrome browser if it is ordered to develop it.
“Yes, we’ll be like many other parties,” Nick Turley, head of Openai Chatgpt, answered the question of whether the company is looking to buy Google’s browser.
The Justice Department called Turley as part of a three-week trial to determine what changes Alphabet Inc’s Google must make to its business after a federal judge discovered the company had monopolized the search market last year. Judge Amit Mehta will decide in August which business practices Google must modify. The Justice Department demands that Google be forced to strip Chrome.
Currently, OpenAI’s chatbot Chatgpt has an extension in Google’s Chrome browser, which is available for users to download. But integrating Chrome deeper into OpenAI will allow for better products, Turley said.
“Incredible experience”
“If Chatgpt is integrated into Chrome, you can provide a truly incredible experience,” he said. We will “have the ability to introduce the appearance of AI first-time experience to users.”
One of the most difficult problems for companies today is distribution. He said that while the company has reached a deal to integrate Chatgpt into Apple Inc.’s iPhone, it has no success with the Android smartphone maker.
Earlier, a Google executive admitted that the company began paying Samsung Electronics in January to pre-install the Gemini AI app on its phones. The deal is not exclusive, but Turley said Openai has not made much progress in negotiations with the Korean company because Google is able to surpass startups.
“It’s not a lack of attempts,” he said. “We’ve never reached the point where we talk about specific terms.”
“Deep worries”
Turley said later in the testimony that he was “deeply worried that we might be turned away”.
He said we have strong competitors that “control the access points that people discover products, including ours. People discover through the browser or through the app store.” “Real choice drives competition. Users should be able to choose.”
Launched in November 2022, Chatgpt has quickly become a viral success as one of the fastest growing consumer software products ever. In February, Openai said it has more than 400 million active users per week. Turley said the company exceeded the 2024 goals of weekly active users, but did not provide numbers.
This week, Google began protesting with the Justice Department with dozens of state attorneys generals against the MEHTA order to prevent the company from monopolizing the online search market.
The Justice Department’s proposed remedies include forcing Google to sell its Chrome browser, licensed search data to competitors, and signing paid contracts for exclusive positions on apps and devices. Google said the government’s proposal would harm consumers by deteriorating everyday Google products, which would harm U.S. technology leadership.
If the court orders Google to sell its popular web browser, that court will be the first court breakup since the AT&T split in the 1980s.
