AI startups like OpenAI could « end up being game changers » for search, Judge Mehta wrote.
Google just dodged the breakup of some of its key businesses, and it has an unlikely competitor to thank: OpenAI.
A federal judge ruled Tuesday that generative AI’s rise has made search more competitive, undermining the Justice Department’s case for carving up Google’s empire, which could have seen products like YouTube or Chrome become totally independent companies.
In Judge Amit Mehta’s decision on Tuesday, the rise of generative AI brought about by OpenAI’s ChatGPT was repeatedly mentioned for making the search business more competitive than ever. That weakened the case for radically restructuring Google’s operations.
Judge Mehta wrote that while generative AI hasn’t displaced Googling yet, AI startups could « end up being game changers. »
Tens of millions of people use GenAI chatbots, like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Anthropic’s Claude, to gather information that they previously sought through internet search, Mehta wrote.
