The Justice Division desires to be taught extra about Google’s AI technique so as to decide what sorts of modifications it’s going to ask for to resolve Google’s monopoly in search.
The request got here throughout a listening to on Friday in a federal court docket in Washington, DC, the place Google and the DOJ met earlier than Choose Amit Mehta, who not too long ago dominated in favor of the DOJ and agreed that Google is an unlawful monopolist. Mehta’s resolution formally ended the primary section of the trial, which centered on whether or not Google is liable beneath antitrust regulation. Now the events are transferring onto the treatments section, the place the federal government will suggest options to right the unlawful conduct and restore competitors to the market.
DOJ lawyer David Dahlquist advised the court docket that the federal government wants extra discovery to know the state of Google’s enterprise lately. The trial coated offers Google made as much as the early a part of this decade, together with a longstanding settlement to offer search companies on Apple merchandise. However the DOJ’s analysis wrapped up simply as Google — alongside would-be opponents like Microsoft — was starting to push a brand new form of search product constructed round generative AI. As Dahlquist talked about, Google’s identify for its AI has even modified since final yr’s trial: it was Bard then, and now it’s Gemini, so the staff is requesting extra details about Google’s newer enterprise choices, together with round AI.
The events nonetheless haven’t agreed on a timeline for the treatments section, which can embody one other trial-like continuing. However Mehta indicated he’d like these arguments to happen within the first half of subsequent yr. Whereas nothing’s set in stone, they count on it to take a lot much less time than the 10-week trial that started final September — extra like per week or two. The events are anticipated to file a brand new scheduling proposal by subsequent Friday.
