Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
US court reigned in August Google has a search monopoly, and the Department of Justice determines what kinds of potential penalties apply when Google applies. Cracking Chrome.
As part of that process, the DOJ wants to call a special witness, according to a recent court filing: Dmitry Shevelenko, Chief Business Officer Confusionan AI search provider most recently valued at $9 billion According to Reuters.
Confusion and other generative AI tools, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT Search, have emerged as potential replacements for web search because they can offer direct answers to complex queries (albeit sometimes with fictitious or inaccurate information). Google has responded to the threat with its own AI search tools, such as AI Insights, which provide AI-generated answers on top of search results.
The DOJ wants to ask Shevelenko about “the relationship of generative artificial intelligence to search access points, distribution, barriers to access and expansion, and information sharing.”
“Search entry points” is a term the DOJ uses to describe things like Google Chrome — places people go to search the web.
While the filing doesn’t say exactly why the DOJ wants to ask Confusion about these topics, it could help the argument that Google monopolizes the search business and shuts out potential competitors, thereby deserving stronger penalties.
TechCrunch asked Perplexity whether its executive agreed to testify and his thoughts on the antitrust case. Confusion did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did Google.
Confusion is effectively caught in the middle of an argument because both sides want information from it that can help their case. Google subpoenaed Perplexity in October for company filings to argue that it is competitive in the search space. (Google also called out Microsoft and OpenAI.)
However, Perplexity has yet to submit “a single document” to Google since Dec. 11, when the tech giant filed a lawsuit after a two-month wait, claiming “there are no reasonable grounds for further delay.”
For its part, Perplexity says in its filing that it has already agreed to comply with 12 of Google’s 14 document requests, but is “still evaluating the burden associated with collecting such a potentially expanding universe of documents.”
Perplexity also says that while it has agreed to provide copies of license agreements “relating to AI education,” Google wants all of Perplexity’s license agreements and has asked Google to “meet and consult” about it.
