Google worried about the rise of rival generative AI apps eating into its Internet search market share, internal documents shown today at a monopolization trial revealed, with executives exploring and testing new access points to push Google Search. US District Judge Amit Mehta, who is overseeing a remedy trial over Google's illegal monopolization of Internet search markets, also heard that the tech giant provides a better service to the Gemini app than it provides to third parties that it has contracts with.
Google worried about the rise of rival generative AI apps eating into its Internet search market share, internal documents shown today at a monopolization trial revealed, with executives exploring and testing new access points to push Google Search.US District Judge Amit Mehta, who is overseeing a remedy trial over Google's illegal monopolization of Internet search markets, also heard testimony today that the tech giant provides a better service to the Gemini app than it provides to third parties with whom it has contracts.
“TLDR: the introduction of AI is creating new access points, allowing other providers to reach users rapidly. Google should meet users where they are or risk ceding a new ecosystem,” read an exhibit displayed by the US Department of Justice during questioning of a senior Google executive.
“Response: Explore new Google access points (in AI, in apps) by testing an embedded Search experience for 2 partner segments: Browsers/Search Engines (A) and Mobile Apps (AI/non-AI),” the exhibit continued.
The DOJ and a coalition of states led by Colorado are telling a Washington, DC, judge that Google intends to leverage its generative AI products and integrate them into Google Search to entrench its illegal monopoly in Internet search services.
As part of the ongoing remedy trial, the government is urging US District Judge Amit Mehta that antitrust enforcers are entitled to review Google’s future investments in and acquisitions of online search and generative AI competitors for a limited period of time to ensure the tech giant can’t use the same monopolistic playbook with new technologies it has previously used.
“We're exploring new entry points, sure,” Elizabeth Hamon Reid, vice president of Search at the tech giant testified under cross-examination by DOJ counsel David Dahlquist.
Earlier in the day when she was being examined by Google’s attorney, Reid said Gemini is not a search access point.
— Google preferencing Gemini —
The Google executive was questioned about the company’s contracts with third-party AI firms who have been relying on the tech giant for chatbot responses to user search queries.
Reid agreed with the DOJ counsel that Google has search query routing agreements with its 10 “biggest customers” who were all left unnamed during the testimony but were shown in a redacted exhibit for the witness and judge.
Continuing the line of questioning, the DOJ attorney showed the court another slide which said, “Gemini app mitigations in place: The web results quality offered to Vertex is lower than what’s offered to the Gemini app.”
“Mitigations: 1. Gemini will continue to get much richer Search results... than what’s offered to Vertex (web results only). Anthropic will continue to only have access to what Vertex has access to (if not less),” the slide read.
Google provides “grounding” services for other companies through a service called Vertex AI. It operates through Google Cloud service and other companies ground their Language Learning Models to Google to make their products stronger.
In the context of AI, "search grounding" refers to connecting the outputs of an AI system, especially generative models, to real-world knowledge and data sources, ensuring responses are factual, current and verifiable.
“Is it your understanding that Google provides a better service to the Gemini app than it provides to third parties?” Dahlquist asked.
Reid said that the web results service Vertex AI provides is the same, but “it [Google] is providing additional services around Knowledge Graph and verticals [to Gemini] that are not offered to others.”
These additional services are the Knowledge Graph, which organizes information about entities like people, places and things, and their relationships. Another additional service is OneBox, which gives users access to real-time data through a simple, fast and easy-to-configure search interface.
Search grounding allows the Gemini model to check Search results before generating an answer. Doing so increases the accuracy of the model’s response. In other words, Gemini treats Google Search like a corpus for Retrieval-Assisted Generation.
Reid’s testimony on Gemini and third-party AI firms is significant as the DOJ is asking Mehta to force Google to share user search query data with rivals.
— AI Overviews —
Dahlquist quizzed the Google executive about “AI Overviews,” which provides users with a quick, AI-generated summary of a topic as well as links to relevant web resources.
The summaries are designed to help users quickly grasp the essence of a query and explore diverse perspectives. AI Overviews are now available in more than 100 countries and are part of Google Search, alongside other features like Knowledge Panels.
“AI Overviews” is a new search feature that was developed in Google Search after the 2023 liability trial.
The DOJ attorney showed another slide which said, “How AI Overviews in Search Work.”
During questioning from Dahlquist, Reid agreed that AI Overviews use a customized Gemini model, which works in tandem with existing search systems. It incorporates Google search quality, Google search ranking and Google search features such as the Knowledge Graph. Google uses search signals to help train the Gemini model that is underlying the AI Overview, she said.
In another internal Google slide, an unknown author wrote, “With AI Overviews, people are visiting a greater diversity of websites for help with more complex questions. We’ve found that people who use AI Overviews actually use Search more and are satisfied with their results.”
Apple executive Eddy Cue is expected to testify for Google tomorrow, followed by expert witness Professor Lorin Hitt.
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