Google, being the tech giant it is, has been subject to several antitrust cases over the years. The latest antitrust case involving the US Justice Department could be its biggest and most potentially devastating to date. So much so that the DOJ is looking to call upon a Perplexity executive to testify in the Google antitrust case.
Perplexity executive to testify
According to a Reuters report, the DOJ wants to call upon Dmitry Shevelenko. Shevelenko currently serves as the chief business officer of Perplexity, a $9 billion AI search startup.
The DOJ’s interest in Perplexity is because similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT Search, Perplexity uses AI to offer direct answers to search queries. This is versus Google’s search engine, which typically offers links to websites it thinks you might be able to find the information from. Google has since responded to these AI-based searches with its own tool in the form of AI Overviews, which has sometimes given some weird answers.
Shevelenko is expected to testify to questions regarding “generative AI’s relationship with Search Access Points, distribution, barriers to entry and expansion, and data sharing.” The term “Search Access Points” essentially refers to software like Google Chrome, basically places where users can go to search the internet on.
The DOJ likely hopes that Shevelenko’s testimony will help its antitrust case against Google by highlighting how Google essentially monopolizes the search business. This in turn could lead to potentially stronger penalties.
Google antitrust case
Google is no stranger to antitrust cases. The latest antitrust case against the company, however, could have quite devastating consequences. In a bid to reduce Google’s monopoly in the market, the DOJ has proposed some rather radical solutions.
One of those solutions could involve breaking up Google into smaller, independent entities. This could force Google to sell off some of its products and services. This includes Chrome, Android, and Google Play.
Unsurprisingly, Google isn’t too thrilled with these proposals. The company has countered that splitting off some of its products could “break them”. Google also added that not many other companies would have the incentive or ability to keep these products free.
That being said, “free” might be an interesting way of putting it. It is no secret that Google relies a lot on data from its users to generate revenue through advertising. It also uses user data for AI training. So at the end of the day, users are still “paying” for it albeit in a different way.
