During an ongoing antitrust trial with the U.S. Department of Justice, Google's Head of Search, Liz Reid, revealed that the company provides lower-quality and fewer data to competing AI models compared to its own Gemini model. This statement further strengthens the claims that the tech giant is abusing its dominant position in the search market to stifle competition.
According to Reid, Google's "Vertex AI" service, which offers a paid "grounding" feature, allows developers to access Google Search data. However, this access is limited and provides inferior data sets compared to the Gemini AI model.
Gemini, on the other hand, has access to Google's internal resources, including the Knowledge Graph and OneBox features. Knowledge Graph helps the AI network explain relationships between objects and concepts, while OneBox provides instant, concise information, such as sports results.
When a U.S. Department of Justice lawyer suggested that these exclusive data sets be shared with competitors, Reid argued that this idea was dangerous. She explained that the data repository is vulnerable to cyberattacks, and sharing it would require approximately 2,000 engineers to be involved.
These revelations highlight how Google is leveraging its dominance in the AI sector to engage in unfair competition and potentially violate market fairness principles. The case has reignited discussions on transparency and fairness in the tech industry, as well as the importance of data equality for the future development of AI.
