With the US Department of Justice weighing potential remedies against Google following its antitrust victory, OpenAI has signaled a possible interest in acquiring the Chrome browser should Google be forced to divest. During the remedies phase of the US v. Google case, OpenAI’s head of product for ChatGPT, Nick Turley, stated that the company would consider purchasing Chrome. This comes after Judge Amit Mehta’s ruling that Google maintains a monopoly in online search. Turley also revealed that OpenAI previously attempted to partner with Google for access to its search technology to enhance ChatGPT’s capabilities. Currently, ChatGPT relies on Bing for search data but has reportedly experienced quality problems. While not explicitly named, Turley referenced “significant quality issues” with “Provider No. 1,” widely understood to be Bing. OpenAI believes that access to Google’s search API would substantially improve the user experience. Google rejected OpenAI’s partnership proposals, leaving the AI company without access to Google’s search infrastructure. OpenAI is concurrently developing its own search index, but internal projections indicate broader adoption will take longer than initially projected. Turley indicated it could now take years before ChatGPT uses OpenAI’s search index for 80% of its queries.

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