The DOJ Proposes ‘Structural’ Changes to Undo Google’s Monopoly

“Plaintiffs are considering remedies that would prohibit Google from using or retaining data that cannot be effectively shared with others on the basis of privacy concerns,” the filing read.

The DOJ also suggested Google license or syndicate its ad feed independent of its search results, in response to Mehta’s charge that Google has a monopoly in search text advertising.

Stopping Google from monopolizing artificial intelligence

The DOJ emphasized that while the case is focused on search, remedies must look to emerging market trends to prevent Google from enacting similar harms in the future, which apply to artificial intelligence.

The DOJ proposed forcing Google to let publishers block their web crawler for Google’s generative artificial intelligence and retrieval-augmented generation, which combines the tech behind search with large language models.

There is currently no way for a publisher to only give the crawler permission to appear in search, but not to scrape the site for artificial intelligence use cases, an active gripe of publishers who see AI as an existential threat to their businesses.

The DOJ also suggested that it would propose remedies that would prevent Google from using its AI tech like Performance Max to protect its monopoly. Performance Max, which uses Google’s algorithms to target across Google’s vast swath of ad placements including search, YouTube and display, has been controversial for undermining buyer control and transparency.

“These remedies may address Google’s use of scale, including new advertising technologies such as artificial intelligence (e.g., Performance Max), in enhancing and protecting its general search text ad monopoly,” the filing read.