- OpenAI’s head of ChatGPT testified in Google’s antitrust case that the company would be interested in buying the Chrome web browser if Alphabet is forced to spin it off. OpenAI has its own search product but has struggled with distribution; access to Chrome’s reach would be a boon for the company.
OpenAI’s head of ChatGPT said the company would happily scoop up Chrome if it were spun off from Google as part of its ongoing antitrust suit.
Nick Turley, the ChatGPT chief, made his company’s intentions clear during his testimony as part of a three-week-long trial to determine how Google must change its business after it was deemed a search monopolist by a federal judge.
“Yes, we would, as would many other parties,” Turley said in his testimony, responding to a question about whether OpenAI would consider buying Google Chrome, Bloomberg reported.
As of now, ChatGPT search is available as a browser extension on Chrome, but if ChatGPT were fully integrated into the web browser, “you could offer a really incredible experience,” Turley added.
In October, OpenAI released ChatGPT search, which blends the natural language of the LLM with the search functionality of a search engine like Google. ChatGPT search has 3 million users, according to the Chrome Web Store. Meanwhile, ChatGPT’s regular app on the Apple App Store was the most-downloaded app globally in March with 46 million downloads, TechCrunch reported.
Breaking into search is tough, as Google controls about 90% of the U.S. internet search market. OpenAI has also run into the pitfalls of trying to distribute its products within the walled gardens built by Apple and Google.
OpenAI has already struck a deal with Apple to integrate ChatGPT into the company’s flagship iPhone. But it hasn’t been able to reach agreements with Android smartphone makers. Since January, Google has been paying to preinstall its AI model, Gemini, on Samsung phones, Bloomberg reported. Turley said ChatGPT hasn’t been able to strike a deal with Samsung because Google can outspend OpenAI.
ChatGPT’s powerful competitors “control the access points for how people discover products, including our product. People discover via a browser or via an app store,” Turley said.
Buying Chrome would be a boon for ChatGPT’s distribution, noted Brian Jackson, principal research director at Info-Tech Research Group.
“Owning Chrome, the most popular web browser globally, would instantly give it a huge customer footprint,” Jackson told Fortune. “In addition, it’d have new opportunities to harvest data from browser interactions, and it would effectively fend off Google’s marketplace advantage for Gemini.”
Although it’s unclear if Google Chrome will be spun off at all, OpenAI is already looking beyond its partnership with Microsoft to improve its product, Turley said.
Another remedy being considered by the court is to force Google to share its search index with rivals, a move that could turbocharge OpenAI’s own efforts to improve its search product.
During his testimony, Turley said OpenAI’s ambition is to make a “super assistant” that would help users with tasks, but search capability is fundamental to helping the product provide accurate answers based on real-time information.
Without referring to it directly, Turley said ChatGPT found “significant quality issues” with Microsoft Bing’s search information, which it has access to as part of its partnership with Microsoft.
Microsoft did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
Representatives for Google verbally declined to give OpenAI access to its search index, even after striking a similar deal with Meta for its AI products. Turley said having access to that data would be a game changer for OpenAI.
“Having access to the data that underlies Google’s index, the content or signals, would accelerate the development of our own index,” he said.
