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Chrome Google The Courts

OpenAI Would Buy Google's Chrome, Exec Testifies At Trial (reuters.com) 35

Posted by BeauHD from the Google-2.0 dept.
At Google's antitrust trial, OpenAI's head of product revealed the company would consider buying Chrome if regulators force Alphabet to sell it, arguing such a move could help improve ChatGPT's search capabilities. Reuters reports: ChatGPT head of product Nick Turley made the statement while testifying at trial in Washington where U.S. Department of Justice seeks to require Google to undertake far-reaching measures restore competition in online search. The judge overseeing the trial found last year that Google has a monopoly in online search and related advertising. Google has not offered Chrome for sale. The company plans to appeal the ruling that it holds a monopoly.

Turley wrote last year that ChatGPT was leading in the consumer chatbot market and did not see Google as its biggest competitor, according to an internal OpenAI document Google's lawyer showed at trial. He testified that the document was meant to inspire OpenAI employees and that the company would still benefit from distribution partnerships. Turley, a witness for the government, testified earlier in the day that Google shot down a bid by OpenAI to use its search technology within ChatGPT. OpenAI had reached out to Google after experiencing issues with its own search provider, Turley said, without naming the provider. ChatGPT uses technology from Microsoft's search engine, Bing. "We believe having multiple partners, and in particular Google's API, would enable us to provide a better product to users," OpenAI told Google, according to an email shown at trial.

OpenAI first reached out in July, and Google declined the request in August, saying it would involve too many competitors, according to the email. "We have no partnership with Google today," Turley said. The DOJ's proposal to make Google share search data with competitors as one means of restoring competition would help accelerate efforts to improve ChatGPT, Turley said. Search is a critical part of ChatGPT to provide answers to user queries that are up to date and factual, Turley said. ChatGPT is years away from its goal of being able to use its own search technology to answer 80% of queries, he added.

OpenAI Would Buy Google's Chrome, Exec Testifies At Trial More | Reply

OpenAI Would Buy Google's Chrome, Exec Testifies At Trial

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  • I tried it, "give me some scientific studies on..." and it returned wikipedia, awful. Google search is awful SEO stuff of course, but ironically if you type a query into the newest version of Gemini juuuust right it will actually give you the search results old Google might've done, without any ads. Maybe OpenAI can buy Gemini and Chrome at the same time and we'll actually have a functioning search engine again.
    • yup, google should have stayed out of the advertising business, it was google's downfall, after google bought Doubleclick they started down that slippery slope of conflict of interest, = "be a good search engine or spam users with advertising" and the worled seen how that went

    • Chrome has nothing to do with search.
      They want to buy it to train on browsing data. They want to harvest the search queries you type in, the result pages that come back and which results you click on.

      • It's more than that. Google doesn't just have its fingers in the browser. It's everywhere in web pages too. This is because web administrators inject analytics code from Google into the web pages that they serve you. They do this so that Google can tell them where the traffic is going.

        By running code both in the browser and on most web servers on the Internet, Google can track not just what you search, but what you actually do after you've left the search page. That includes what you do after you've left

  • It was some guy named "Joe Firefox", apparently he thinks it's a fantastic idea.

  • Strongest argument yet (Score:3, Funny)

    by TheRealSlimShady ( 253441 ) on Tuesday April 22, 2025 @06:50PM (#65324465)

    Strongest argument yet to keep Chrome in Google's hands.

  • This would be sure to tank Chrome and give other browsers a chance. I'm in favor of it but I'm also bias because I'm a Firefox user.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by kqs ( 1038910 )

      People generally have to download either firefox or chrome (or stick with the browser on their computer); it's similar effort no matter what they download. Most people seem to prefer chrome (strongly). So you are saying "I insist that people use a browser they dislike, just because I wanna." I mean, it's got some promise as an Evil Overlord plot if you add some nuclear missile silos on the moon somehow, but otherwise it's just confusing.

      • Most people seem to prefer chrome (strongly).

        What's the evidence for that? Most people wind up with Chrome, that doesn't mean they even compared them. They got bombarded with ads for Chrome by Google, so they got Chrome, why do they need another browser if it works?

      • So you are saying "I insist that people use a browser they dislike, just because I wanna."

        Not at all. Chrome has shown to be harmful to people's privacy but they seem to go along with it. I think it's mostly inertia kinda like all the fools that sticking to Windows for no reason but enough of a shock and they'll look elsewhere.

    • Firefox did have there chance and where number one for years. they decided to screw around, piss off there users. and get dominated by chrome.

      • You're not wrong but that doesn't mean Chrome is better for people. Just look at the difference in privacy protections.

  • Hooray, problem solved! (Score:3)

    by fuzzyfuzzyfungus ( 1223518 ) on Tuesday April 22, 2025 @07:14PM (#65324511) Journal
    I'm so, so, glad that we'll be able to deal with Google using control of a browser to strengthen its other areas of business by finding other people who have the exact same nefarious purposes for controlling a browser to potentially take it over instead!
    • you know all there buying is a brand google chrome itself is opensource.

      • No it's not. Chrome differs quite significantly from Chromium. In any case the openness of the code is only one very minor point here and not the one principally complained about. The problem is how much influence the owner of Chrome has for things such as setting standards on the internet.

  • Silly goose! Browsers are for selling the metrics of its users.

    Everything on Earth must serve our new god: BigData

  • Users of Mac and Windows get safari and edge preinstalled, so these browsers have a clear and distinct advantage. However, almost all users decided to only use those default browsers to install Chrome and set it as their default⦠so a judge decided it is part of an illegal monopoly and must be removed from Googleâ(TM)s control?

    The expensive backroom-deal brandy and cigar smoke coming from the judges chamber canâ(TM)t mask the smell of fecal matter in this decision.

    • chrome is open source all this will do nothing. they get a name and thats all.

    • When people search anything on Google or check their Gmail, it throws up a scary warning that they're using the internet wrong because they're not using Chrome. I think it's crazy more people don't use Firefox. The things the people on ./ complain about regarding Firefox are so minor. Oh no! The tabs are up there instead of down here!

  • Google collects a monstrous amount of data about us every day through interactions with its browser and search engine. Very clear to see how that would be an incredibly valuable resource for an AI company. OpenAI would pour all that into training data and fuse AI directly into browsing and search. The OpenAI personal assistant you will be renting for a few dollars a month will be directly hooked in to all that.

    Is that good for the rest of us? I don't know. Doesn't sound like it.

    • or it will be Firefox all over again everyone dumps it for another browser. all you have with chrome is a brand and if judges think selling that brand wont do anything but kill it wile google just takes the source renames it and just makes a new browser.

  • The last thing any of us should want is for OpenAI to take over from Google.

    I really don't understand this decision that Google should be broken up as though its 'monopoly' in search isn't entirely based on skill and talent. But if we *are* going to force companies to break up into components, can we make sure new monoliths aren't just created as a result?

    • we all know these breakups dont do anything, google just makes another browser with a new name and chrome dies off.

    • I really don't understand this decision that Google should be broken up as though its 'monopoly' in search isn't entirely based on skill and talent.

      Because they abuse their search monopoly to get dominance in other areas where they are not otherwise a clear winner.

      can we make sure new monoliths aren't just created as a result?

      Enforcing the law requires constant vigilance. That requirement doesn't mean we should just give up.

  • Toss it from one pile of shit to the other! Genius!

  • Time to use Firefox again

  • Guess what, even if your company somehow contracted with OpenAI to not steal and train on your secrets, now they can do so under the guise of targeted advertising or maybe employee monitoring. They can do both while also training and triple-dip! If they buy Chrome you might want to change your browser or your LLM provider in an attempt to limit introspection into your private affairs. I doubt it would work though since your cross-site activity data can be purchased regardless of your browser. Consider them

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