Federal prosecutors have withdrawn their previous demand that Google sell off its stakes in artificial intelligence ventures, including its multi-billion dollar investment in Anthropic.
The Justice Department, along with 38 state legal chiefs, continues to pursue other remedies in their landmark antitrust case, which already established Google’s illegal dominance in search. Their revised proposal still calls for Google to divest its Chrome browser and implement additional measures to restore competition.
Had regulators persisted with the AI divestiture demand, Anthropic could have faced significant disadvantages against competitors like OpenAI and its strategic ally Microsoft, according to arguments Anthropic presented in February court filings.
After proposing the AI divestiture last November, government attorneys conducted further investigation, consulting Google rivals and AI industry players. This additional evidence convinced prosecutors that forcing Google to abandon its AI investments might produce “unintended consequences” in the rapidly changing artificial intelligence landscape, as stated in Friday’s court submission.
Rather than requiring complete divestiture, regulators now propose that Google must provide advance notification before making new investments in generative AI technologies.
Meanwhile, Google plans to appeal the monopoly ruling and has offered its own solution that would relax arrangements with Apple and other partners that establish Google as the default search option on new devices.
The competing proposals will be evaluated during a trial scheduled for April before U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta.
Stay tuned to DC Brief for further updates on this story and other technology developments.
