Google Bard unexpectedly "sided" with the U.S. Department of Justice! bluntly said that Google abused its illegal monopoly power

Article source: Finance Associated Press

Author: Zhou Ziyi

Image source: Generated by Unbounded AI

Bard, Google’s artificial intelligence chatbot, has “traitorous” behavior?

In September, the U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google, accusing it of stifling competition by making $10 billion deals a year to maintain its position as the default search engine on web browsers and mobile devices.

Recently, some media asked Bard about this matter. When asked if he agreed with the U.S. Department of Justice, Bard chose to side with the federal government, claiming that U.S. prosecutors’ evidence clearly showed that Google was “illegally using its monopoly power to maintain its dominance in the online search market.”

“I think the Justice Department should have the upper hand in this case,” Bard said. “If Google is found to have violated antitrust laws, the court should order Google to change its business practices to make it easier for other search engines to compete.” This will lead to increased competition in the online search market and lower prices for consumers. ”

Bard: Google harms consumers

Recently, Google is trying to avoid a court ruling that could upend its business model.

The U.S. Department of Justice said in September that Google pays partners like Apple and AT&T more than $10 billion a year to ensure that its search engine becomes the default search engine for most devices and maintains 90 percent of its market share. Among them, in 2021 alone, it was as high as $26.3 billion.

In his opening arguments, Justice Department lawyer Kenneth Dintzer claimed that Google had “abused its monopoly on general search” over the past 12 years, warning that “the harm of Google’s exclusivity contract affects every phone and every computer in this country.” In addition, the federal government has accused Google of abusing its dominant position to inflate prices for advertisers.

During the trial, Google’s search rivals — Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg — testified that the deals made it nearly impossible for Google’s dominance to be undermined.

Bard agreed, “I agree with the Justice Department that Google’s dominance of the online search market harms consumers.” Google’s high prices on search ads make it more expensive for businesses to reach customers. And Google’s lack of innovation has led to lower quality search results for users. ”

He asserts that the deal with the default search engine “makes it difficult for new search engines to enter the market and stifles innovation.” ”

The chatbot cites several specific examples of “Google’s anti-competitive behavior,” including its default search protocols with Apple and Mozilla.

When asked what the judge should do to take control of Google’s search business, Bard also offered several possible options — including ordering Google to terminate its default search engine deal, requiring Google to share search data with competitors, and even breaking up Google’s search advertising business.

In response to Bard’s remarks, a Google spokesperson said in an interview, “All large language models have hallucinations problems, including Bard.” ”

“As we’ve always said, Bard is an experiment that seems to be better at recommending must-see attractions in New York or suggesting Thanksgiving decorations than it does in complex antitrust lawsuits,” the spokesperson said. ”