Nick Turley, Head of Product at artificial intelligence giant OpenAI, testified during a legal proceeding involving tech giant Google — which had previously refused to collaborate with OpenAI — about the restrictions that may be imposed on the company. During his testimony, he made a statement that sparked a massive uproar regarding a possible acquisition of Chrome, the world’s most popular browser, which belongs to and is strongly identified with Google.
As is well known, Google’s trial centers on its position as a monopoly in the search engine market. During the proceedings, it was revealed that the company paid enormous sums to major corporations like Apple, to ensure the use of its browser on their devices — thereby maintaining its monopoly power, as determined by the court. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta of the District of Columbia stated in his opinion: “After weighing the testimony and evidence, the court concludes that Google holds monopoly power and acted to maintain that monopoly, thereby violating the law.”
As a result, the Head of Product at OpenAI said during his testimony that many players in the market would be interested in purchasing the browser if the court decides that Google must part with it. As a reminder, OpenAI is the creator of ChatGPT, which many people already use as a search engine. The concern is that if a company like OpenAI acquires the browser, the balance of power will not be more equal — it will simply shift sides. However, there are also those who support the separation of Google and Chrome.
Sam Altman, CEO of the company behind ChatGPT, recently addressed the product’s widespread popularity and the question many users have raised: whether using polite expressions with artificial intelligence is beneficial. Altman revealed that polite speech toward chatbots, including words like “please” and “thank you,” wastes tens of millions of dollars. According to him, politeness toward AI is not only culturally meaningless, but also carries a significant financial and environmental cost.