The judgment In the case of the United States against Google, published yesterday, it is one of the most important in the history of the world of technology. And in it Judge Amit Metha, in charge of the case, mentions 133 times the same word.
Ia.
Three years ago this sentence would have been very different, and there would probably have not had a single mention of that acronym. But the launch of Chatgpt in late 2022 has changed everything, and has caused a surprising consequence for Google. Despite having confirmed that it has a monopoly in the searches business, The punishment has been soft. Almost benign.
Google will not have to sell Chrome As the accusation demandedand instead the judge has forced the company to share search data with its competitors already limit – but without prohibiting them – the exclusive search contracts that it maintains with companies such as Apple.
The result of the trial is clear: Google has won, especially since it has lost much than what I could have lost. AND The great responsible for that legal triumph is not even Google, but chatgpt. Already in the introduction of the sentence, on its first page, the foundations of that decision are made clear:
“Google is still the dominant firm in the relevant product markets (search). No rival has managed to fight with Google market share. And no new competitor has entered the market. But artificial intelligence technologies, in particular the generative AI (” Genai “)) can end up changing the rules of the game.”
From there the sentence speaks of how generative technologies have been increasingly integrating into traditional search engines. It is something we saw first with Perplexity and that has ended up changing the search experience of the same Google.
Chatgpt, the unexpected Salvador de Google
From the results page with a list of links we have moved to a page in which more and more often The first thing that appears is an AI overViewan answer generated by AI and built directly from different sources. He NEW AI MODE It goes even further and raises the future transition from the traditional search engine – you are questions, he generates link lists – to one with whom we will talk.
The AI has entered as an elephant in a potsweeping everything, and searches have been especially impacted. We are many who started using much more chatgpt, Claude or Gemini than the traditional Google search engine or some of its rivals, and that reality has been reflected in the sentence: the search engine, as we knew it, is becoming something else, so the classic search engine is no longer “so dangerous.”
In fact, this sentence is from that very reasonable point of view: the AI boom is creating such competition in the searches market to force Google to make drastic structural changes – such as selling Chrome – seems unnecessary.
Of course, that does not make the sentence be content. Gabriel Weinberg, CEO of Duckckgo, believes that Google’s privileged position will continue to benefit and prevent free competition. In A shared statement in X He explained how “Google will continue to continue using their monopoly to stop competitors, including searches with AI.”
Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic, went further and criticized the punishment that justice had imposed to Google, considering it absurd and raising an analogy of the most suggestive:
“It is as if a defendant had stolen a series of banks and the court’s verdict had declared him guilty, and then he had condemned him to probation, by virtue of which he could continue to steal banks, but he would have to share information on how he does it with other thieves of competition banks.”
It is an interesting way to see that sentence, of course, but it is clear that sharing that data from your searches – Gogle has already warned that will review that decision– Open a door to more competitors. Not only that: it raises changes for the panorama of future search engines, including those with whom we will not stop talking. Chatgpt, the unexpected Salvador de Google, included.
Image | Xataka with chatgpt
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