During a court hearing today, the head of product at OpenAI expressed interest in acquiring Google’s Chrome browser if the company is compelled to divest it. This statement was made in connection with ongoing antitrust proceedings involving Google, as reported by Reuters.
The potential divestiture of Chrome is amongst the remedies proposed by the US Department of Justice in the case US v. Google. Last year, Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google operates as a monopolist in the field of online search. The trial’s remedies phase commenced this week, with Google indicating plans to appeal the earlier ruling.
Nick Turley, the OpenAI executive, testified that the organization had approached Google last year regarding a possible collaboration that would integrate Google’s search technology into ChatGPT. While noting that ChatGPT currently utilizes Bing’s search capabilities, Turley highlighted ongoing “significant quality issues” with a partner identified in court as “Provider No. 1,” according to Bloomberg.
In an email presented during the trial, OpenAI remarked, “We believe having multiple partners, and specifically Google’s API, would enable us to provide a better product to users.” Turley indicated that Google opted against forming a partnership with OpenAI, stating, “we have no partnership with Google today.”
Additionally, OpenAI is developing its own search index. Initially, the company aimed for ChatGPT to utilize this index for 80 percent of searches by the end of 2025. However, Turley conveyed to the court that the timeline for achieving this goal has now been extended, suggesting that it may take several more years.
