In a strange turn of events, we could see the dominant force in Search, Chrome, fall into the hands of OpenAI.
Google is currently wrapped up in a trial to address whether it holds too much of a monopoly on the search market. If Google were to lose this trial, it could be forced to sell Chrome to balance out the competition.
While it's not clear if Google will have to sell off Chrome, or even if OpenAI would be able to buy it, the AI giant has made it clear that it would quite happily take it on if the opportunity arose.
Last year, OpenAI contacted Google about a potential partnership allowing ChatGPT to use Google’s search technology, but it was turned down.
In the trial, an email was shown from OpenAI to Google which stated: “We believe having multiple partners, and in particular Google’s API, would enable us to provide a better product to users.”
ChatGPT uses technology from Microsoft’s Bing search tool, as the company currently has no relationship with Google.
What would this mean for Chrome and OpenAI?
OpenAI has already launched ChatGPT Search and has shown that, like other AI companies, it wants a slice of the search pie.
By getting its hands on Chrome, OpenAI would be able to combine the powers of ChatGPT and Chrome, as well as take on the massive audience that Chrome already has.
More importantly, Chrome would offer OpenAI a gigantic pie of data for their training modules. If OpenAI did get its hands on Chrome, this could give the brand a massive advantage.
Chrome would offer OpenAI a gigantic pie of data for their training modules.
In the original trial (this has been going on for a while), Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella made the point that the only way to build a great search engine was with an incredibly large amount of data — an amount of data that only Google really has.
This gives Google a major advantage over the competition. It was also argued that Google is now using the same technique with its massive data reserves to get ahead with its AI model, Gemini.
Unsurprisingly, Google argues that OpenAI is already a competitive force in the tech world and it could also become a monopoly if it gained Chrome.
For now, it is unclear where this will all go. The trial is still ongoing but as things progress, we could soon see a new owner for Chrome, whether that's OpenAI or some other tech giant.
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