Google CEO Sundar Pichai highlighted the aggressive nature of the sphere of synthetic intelligence (AI) on Wednesday, testifying because the search large seeks to combat the Division of Justice’s (DOJ) push to interrupt up the corporate.

Pichai took the stand for about an hour and a half as a part of a three-week listening to to assist the courtroom decide corrective measures after Google was discovered final August to have an unlawful monopoly over on-line search.

The case has more and more centered on the way forward for AI and what the expertise might imply for Google’s dominance.

Pichai on Wednesday described his push to make Google an “AI-first company,” detailing how the expertise is used throughout the corporate’s merchandise, together with search.  

The tech agency additionally has a separate AI chatbot referred to as Gemini, which the CEO stated faces stiff competitors from the likes of ChatGPT, Grok and DeepSeek.

“I’m pleased with the progress [on AI], but we have a big gap between us and the market leader in this space,” he stated, referring to ChatGPT maker OpenAI. 

He famous Google misplaced out to OpenAI on a cope with Apple to combine its AI capabilities on the iPhone maker’s gadgets.

The DOJ has argued the courtroom ought to look to the long run because it seeks to handle the monopolization discovering within the case, making an allowance for how Google’s search dominance might give it a leg up on AI.  

The federal government is asking the courtroom to power Google to divest from its Chrome net browser, along with sharing its search information and syndication with rivals. It additionally seeks to bar the unique search agreements on the core of the case.  

The courtroom discovered Google illegally maintained its monopoly by the unique agreements with machine producers and browser builders that ensured its search product was the default.

The tech large has criticized the federal government’s proposal, arguing it goes effectively past the details of the case. It has as an alternative steered extra restricted restrictions on its search agreements.

Pichai argued Wednesday that the DOJ’s treatments, significantly on information sharing and syndication, would discourage the corporate from investing in analysis and improvement, describing it as a “de facto divestiture.” 

He additionally reiterated the corporate’s issues about information privateness and safety surrounding each data-sharing and the Chrome divestiture.  

Nonetheless, DOJ legal professional Veronica Onyema sought to underscore in her cross-examination of the Google CEO that different firms can present information safety and that Google has had its personal privateness issues up to now.

Pichai additionally confirmed to Onyema that Apple has expressed curiosity in reaching agreements with AI suppliers aside from OpenAI and that Google hopes to strike a deal by the center of this 12 months. 

Google faces an more and more unsure future after shedding two main antitrust circumstances. Earlier this month, a federal choose in Virginia dominated that the tech agency additionally had an unlawful monopoly over promoting expertise.

The tech agency has claimed a partial victory within the advert tech case, after the choose rejected the DOJ’s arguments that there was a separate advertiser market and that its advert tech acquisitions had been illegal. The corporate has vowed to attraction the remainder of the choice.

Google additionally plans to attraction the ruling within the search case, however it should first full the treatments part. The choose overseeing the case has stated he intends to rule by August.