The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday set out the changes it would like to see at Google after a federal district court judge ruled in August that the company was guilty of antitrust abuses in the search and search-advertising markets.
Understandably, the headline suggestion has been to break up Google, perhaps by forcing it to split off its Chrome browser or Android mobile operating system—both of which have been key to shoring up Google’s search monopoly. But the DOJ also proposed changes (or “remedies” in antitrust-speak) that could severely crimp Google’s efforts to maintain a leading position in the age of AI-infused search.
