The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday dropped a proposal to force Google to sell its investments in AI companies, including OpenAI rival Anthropic, Reuters reported. The U.S. Department of Justice originally wanted to use this move to increase competition in online searches.
In their final motion Friday, prosecutors said evidence showed that banning Google from investing in AI "could have unintended consequences in the evolving field of AI," according to court documents filed by the Justice Department in Washington on Friday. They require Google to notify the government in advance when making future investments in generative AI. In November last year, the U.S. Department of Justice first proposed requiring Google to sell its AI investments. Prosecutors then continued to seek evidence from Google's competitors and AI companies.
Google holds a minority stake in Anthropic worth billions of dollars. Anthropic wrote to the court in February this year that OpenAI and its partner Microsoft would gain a competitive advantage if the company lost this investment.
However, the U.S. Department of Justice and a coalition of 38 state attorneys general are still seeking a court order requiring Google to sell its Chrome browser and take other steps to address what the judge calls Google's illegal monopoly on search.
Google has proposed its own relief package, with plans to relax agreements with companies like Apple to make Google the default search engine on new devices. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta has scheduled a trial on the proposals for April.
As of press time, Google and Anthropic have yet to comment.