DOJ: Google Can Keep AI Investments but Must Sell Chrome

The Justice Department has dropped its bid to force Google to sell its artificial intelligence (AI) investments.

That’s according to a report Friday (March 7) by Reuters, which said the government is still seeking a court order that would compel the tech giant to sell its Chrome browser, following a judge’s ruling that Google held an illegal search monopoly.

“The American dream is about higher values than just cheap goods and ‘free’ online services. These values include freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom to innovate, and freedom to compete in a market undistorted by the controlling hand of a monopolist,” prosecutors wrote in court papers.

A Google spokesperson told Reuters that the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) proposals “continue to go miles beyond the Court’s decision, and would harm America’s consumers, economy and national security.”

The DOJ and a coalition of state attorneys general sued Google in 2020, alleging the company engaged in unlawful competitive practices to uphold its search and advertising dominance. A judge sided with prosecutors and will hear evidence on how to proceed in April.

Last month, Anthropic — the AI startup in which Google has invested $3 billion — asked the court to allow Google to keep its AI investments.

“A remedy that requires Google to terminate its relationship with Anthropic would harm both Anthropic and competition more generally,” the company’s filing said in a court filing.

In other Google/AI news, the company last week debuted a search capability dubbed “AI mode.” This still-experimental offering is “AI Overviews on steroids,” PYMNTS wrote, able to carry out more advanced reasoning and thinking. It also has multimodal capabilities, meaning it can understand other types of content besides text, while also letting users ask follow-up queries.

“AI Mode is particularly helpful for questions that need further exploration, comparisons and reasoning,” Robby Stein, vice president of product at Google, wrote in a blog post.

“You can ask nuanced questions that might have previously taken multiple searches — like exploring a new concept or comparing detailed options — and get a helpful AI-powered response with links to learn more,” he added.

Google launched AI Overviews in the U.S. in May, a tool designed to provide an AI-generated summary of information from several sources along with search results.

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