Google could use AI to extend search monopoly, DOJ says as trial begins

Google should have strong measures imposed on it to prevent it from using AI products to dominate online search even further, as their antitrust trial began.

Alphabet's Google needs strong measures imposed on it to prevent it from using its artificial intelligence products to extend its dominance in online search, a U.S. Department of Justice attorney said as trial in the historic antitrust case began on Monday.

The outcome of the trial could fundamentally reshape the internet by unseating Google as the go-to portal for information online. The DOJ has compared the lawsuit to its past efforts to break up AT&T, Microsoft and Standard Oil.

"The time to tell Google and all other monopolists who are out there listening, and they are listening, that there are consequences when you break the antitrust laws," DOJ attorney David Dahlquist said during his opening statement.

The DOJ and a broad coalition of state attorneys general seek to force Google to sell off its Chrome browser and take other measures to restore competition even as search evolves to overlap with generative AI products such as ChatGPT.

"This court's remedy should be forward-looking and not ignore what is on the horizon," Dahlquist said.

Witnesses from Perplexity AI and OpenAI will testify about how search and AI overlap and how Google's dominance affects their business, Dahlquist said.

Google argues that its AI products are outside the scope of the case, which focused on search engines. Adopting the proposed remedies "would hold back American innovation at a critical juncture," Google executive Lee-Anne Mulholland said in a blog post on Sunday.