Google reportedly faces a recent Justice Division probe over whether or not it violated antitrust legislation by its partnership with synthetic intelligence chatbot agency Character.AI.
DOJ officers knowledgeable Google that they’re investigating whether or not it purposely structured a cope with Character.AI final yr to keep away from regulatory scrutiny.
The Massive Tech large employed key members of Character.AI engineering workforce – together with its co-founders – and secured a non-exclusive license to make use of its chatbot know-how.
“We’re always happy to answer any questions from regulators,” a Google spokesperson mentioned in an announcement. “We’re excited that talent from Character.ai joined the company but we have no ownership stake and they remain a separate company.”
The DOJ declined to remark. Character.AI didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Google has not been accused of any wrongdoing, individuals aware of the matter advised Bloomberg, including that the probe was in its early phases and wouldn’t essentially end in an enforcement motion.
Each of Character.AI’s co-founders, Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, are former Google workers who’ve now returned to the corporate.
The DOJ probe is the newest authorized headache for each Google and Character.AI, whose chatbot impersonates characters that may have lifelike conversations with customers.
Character.AI is within the midst of a high-profile wrongful loss of life lawsuit filed by the mom of 14-year-old son Sewell Setzer III, who dedicated suicide.
The lawsuit alleges that Character.AI’s chatbot created a personality patterned on the HBO collection “Game of Thrones” that pulled the teenager into emotionally and sexually abusive relationship that finally led to his loss of life.
Earlier this week, a federal decide allowed the lawsuit to proceed whereas capturing down Character.AI’s argument that it was protected by the First Modification.
In the meantime, Google has misplaced two historic antitrust instances introduced the DOJ – one geared toward its on-line search empire and one other targeted on its digital promoting know-how.
In each instances, federal judges are contemplating cures that might embody a breakup of the corporate.
A choice within the search case is anticipated by August and will power Google to dump its Chrome net browser.
The DOJ has requested US District Choose Amit Mehta, who’s presiding over the search cures, to think about long-term implications of Google’s AI merchandise when contemplating how greatest to finish its monopoly over search.
Google’s cope with Character.AI has drawn comparisons to so-called “acqui-hire” transactions which have gained recognition in Silicon Valley as regulators within the US and overseas step up their scrutiny of tech corporations.
Some critics argue that the offers enable tech corporations to quietly disarm startups earlier than they will threaten their companies.
Final yr, the UK’s competitors watchdog opened a probe into Microsoft’s mass hiring of workers from Inflection AI – however in the end cleared it.
