Google faces trial in US bid to end search monopoly
The US Department of Justice is heading into trial after two major legal victories against Google, having won a ruling in August that Google monopolised search.
The trial comes on the heels of a win in a Virginia court on Thursday where a judge ruled in a separate antitrust case that Google maintains an illegal monopoly in advertising technology.
The outcome of the trial could fundamentally reshape the internet by unseating Google as the go-to portal for information online.
Google plans to appeal the final ruling in the case.
'When it comes to antitrust remedies, the US Supreme Court has said that 'caution is key.' DOJ's proposal throws that caution to the wind,' Google executive Lee-Anne Mulholland said in a blog post yesterday.
US District Judge Amit Mehta is scheduled to oversee the three-week trial at the same courthouse where Meta Platforms is facing its own antitrust trial over the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp.
The US Department of Justice and a coalition of 38 state attorneys general have proposed far-reaching measures designed to quickly open the search market and give new competitors a leg up.
Their proposals include ending exclusive agreements in which Google pays billions of dollars annually to Apple and other device vendors to make Google the default search engine on their tablets and smartphones.
Google would also have to license search results to competitors, among other requirements. And it would be made to sell its Android mobile operating system if other remedies fail to restore competition.
Prosecutors have said they expect testimony about how Google's agreements to be the default search engine on mobile devices have hampered distribution efforts by artificial intelligence companies. Witnesses from Perplexity AI and OpenAI are expected to take the stand.
Google sees the proposals as extreme, and said the court should stick to limiting the terms of its default agreements.
The US$1.9 trillion (RM8.4 trillion) tech company has been subsidizing browser makers such as Mozilla by paying to remain the default search engine. Cutting off that financial support could threaten their existence, Google says. And ending payments to device makers would raise the cost of smartphones, the company claims.
Google plans to call witnesses from Mozilla, Verizon and Apple, which launched a failed bid to intervene in the case.
Few potential buyers of Chrome have the same incentive as Google to maintain the free open-source code that underpins it, and which others including Microsoft use as a basis for their own browsers, the company says. — Reuters
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
8 hours ago
- The Star
ChatGPT helps prepare this mayor's talking points. Now he wants a thousand city workers using AI
Before the mayor of San Jose, California, arrives at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new business, his aides ask ChatGPT to help draft some talking points. "Elected officials do a tremendous amount of public speaking,' said Mayor Matt Mahan, whose recent itinerary has taken him from new restaurant and semiconductor startup openings to a festival of lowriding car culture. Other politicians might be skittish admitting a chatbot co-wrote their speech or that it helped draft a US$5.6bil (RM23.7bil) budget for the new fiscal year, but Mahan is trying to lead by example, pushing a growing number of the nearly 7,000 government workers running Silicon Valley's biggest city to embrace artificial intelligence technology. Mahan said adopting AI tools will eliminate drudge work and help the city better serve its roughly 1 million residents. He's hardly the only public or private sector executive directing an AI-or-bust strategy, though in some cases, workers have found that the costly technology can add hassles or mistakes. "The idea is to try things, be really transparent, look for problems, flag them, share them across different government agencies, and then work with vendors and internal teams to problem solve,' Mahan said in an interview. "It's always bumpy with new technologies.' By next year, the city intends to have 1,000, or about 15%, of its workers trained to use AI tools for a variety of tasks, including pothole complaint response, bus routing and using vehicle-tracking surveillance cameras to solve crimes. One of San Jose's early adopters was Andrea Arjona Amador, who leads electric mobility programs at the city's transportation department. She has already used ChatGPT to secure a US$12mil (RM50.9mil) grant for electric vehicle chargers. Arjona Amador set up a customised "AI agent' to review the correspondence she was receiving about various grant proposals and asked it to help organise the incoming information, including due dates. Then, she had it help draft the 20-page document. So far, San Jose has spent more than US$35,000 (RM148,592) to purchase 89 ChatGPT licenses – at US$400 (RM1,698) per account – for city workers to use. "The way it used to work, before I started using this, we spent a lot of evenings and weekends trying to get grants to the finish line,' she said. The Trump administration later rescinded the funding, so she pitched a similar proposal to a regional funder not tied to the federal government. Arjona Amador, who learned Spanish and French before she learned English, also created another customized chatbot to edit the tone and language of her professional writings. With close relationships to some of the tech industry's biggest players, including San Francisco-based OpenAI and Mountain View-based Google, the mayors of the Bay Area's biggest cities are helping to promote the type of AI adoption that the tech industry is striving for, while also promising guidelines and standards to avoid the technology's harms. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie announced a plan Monday to give nearly 30,000 city workers, including nurses and social workers, access to Microsoft's Copilot chatbot, which is based on the same technology that powers ChatGPT. San Francisco's plan says it comes with "robust privacy and bias safeguards, and clear guidelines to ensure technology enhances - not replaces - human judgment.' San Jose has similar guidelines and hasn't yet reported any major mishaps with its pilot projects. Such problems have attracted attention elsewhere because of the technology's propensity to spew false information, known as hallucinations. ChatGPT's digital fingerprints were found on an error-filled document published in May by US Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr.'s "Make America Healthy Again" commission. In Fresno, California, a school official was forced to resign after saying she was too trusting of an AI chatbot that fabricated information in a document. While some government agencies have been secretive about when they turn to chatbots for help, Mahan is open about his ChatGPT-written background memos that he turns to when making speeches. "Historically, that would have taken hours of phone calls and reading, and you just never would have been able to get those insights," he said. "You can knock out these tasks at a similar or better level of quality in a lot less time.' He added, however, that "you still need a human being in the loop. You can't just kind of press a couple of buttons and trust the output. You still have to do some independent verification. You have to have logic and common sense and ask questions.' Earlier this year, when OpenAI introduced a new pilot product called Operator, it promised a new kind of tool that went beyond a chatbot's capabilities. Instead of just analyzing documents and producing passages of text, it could also access a computer system and schedule calendars or perform tasks on a person's behalf. Developing and selling such "AI agents" is now a key focus for the tech industry. More than an hour's drive east of Silicon Valley, where the Bay Area merges into Central Valley farm country, Jamil Niazi, director of information technology at the city of Stockton, had big visions for what he could do with such an agent. Perhaps the parks and recreation department could let an AI agent help residents book a public park or swimming pool for a birthday party. Or residents could find out how crowded the pool was before packing their swim clothes. Six months later, however, after completing a proof-of-concept phase, the city didn't buy a full license for the technology due to the cost. The market research group Gartner recently predicted that over 40% of "agentic AI' projects will be cancelled before the end of 2027, "due to escalating costs, unclear business value or inadequate risk controls.' San Jose's mayor remains bullish about the potential for these AI tools to help workers "in the bowels of bureaucracy' to rapidly speed up their digital paperwork. "There's just an amazing amount of bureaucracy that large organisations have to have,' Mahan said. "Whether it's finance, accounting, HR or grant writing, those are the kinds of roles where we think our employees can be 20 (to) 50% more productive – quickly.' – AP ——— The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement that allows OpenAI access to part of AP's text archives.
The Star
10 hours ago
- The Star
SkyWorld unveils Penang's vertical living era
BUTTERWORTH: Breaking ground on the nation's largest affordable housing project under the Rumah Bakat Madani initiative, SkyWorld Pearlmont promises accessible, high-quality high-rise living, along with the nation's first vertical school. SkyWorld Development Berhad chief executive officer Lee Chee Seng said the landmark development boasts 1,846 units. 'This is SkyWorld's first venture in Penang, set on 12.54ha (31 acres) of freehold land in the heart of Seberang Jaya. 'Phase 1A of SkyWorld Pearlmont offers 1,846 units in three towers, with each unit being 900 sq ft, with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. 'Prices range from RM323,000 to RM390,000, including options for one or two carparks,' he said at the groundbreaking ceremony held at Seberang Perai on July 19. Lee said the development features a 4ha elevated park, considered the largest of its kind in Penang. 'SkyWorld Pearlmont is the first project in Penang to fully adopt prefabricated prefinished volumetric construction (PPVC), a modular 'Lego-style' system that enhances build quality, safety and efficiency.' Buyers will benefit from premium-quality affordable homes with a 10-year warranty on water leaks and the piping system, low maintenance costs of RM0.18 per sq ft and a benchmark of the Quality Assessment System in Construction score of 85% in construction innovation, he said. Lee said the gross development value of the project is at RM2bil and it is expected to be completed in 2029. The project will pioneer the integration of a vertical school into a high-rise affordable housing community, enhancing accessibility and safety for children in working families. 'Vertical schools represent an architectural evolution in educational design, where learning environments are structured within multi-level, purpose-built towers rather than sprawling, land-intensive campuses. 'This vertical format is especially suited for urban and high- density settings, allowing architects to maximise limited land while maintaining functional, child-centric spaces. 'Each floor is typically designed to serve a specific age group or learning theme, with clear spatial zoning that supports developmental needs and intuitive wayfinding,' he said. 'Other features include SkyWorld Healthy Home characteristics like a passive design, natural light and ventilation. 'The project also includes a pay-per-use clubhouse that features an infinity pool, pickleball and badminton courts, a kids' playland and gyms,' he said. Lee said with freehold units, an elevated park, smart home features and wellness-focused design, SkyWorld Pearlmont is a future-ready township designed for generational living and community growth. Lee said the groundbreaking ceremony comes just eight months after the signing of the Joint Development Agreement (JDA) with Penang Development Corporation (PDC) and PDC Properties. 'This development will serve as a public-private initiative aimed at delivering more than 35,000 units under the Rumah Bakat Madani scheme. 'Unlike traditional public housing, Rumah Bakat Madani units are freehold and open to all Malaysians, including non-Penangites working in the state, particularly in the electric and electronic and industrial sectors that drive Penang's economy. 'This project aims to not only invite young talent from across Malaysia to call Penang home but also to build a stronger economy and community,' he said. The groundbreaking ceremony was graced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Housing and Local Government Minister Nga Kor Ming, Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow and SkyWorld founder and executive chairman Datuk Seri Ng Thien Phing, among others. In his speech, Nga said SkyWorld, an international award-winning developer, has been tasked with building a total of 37,368 residential units, comprising 6,368 units in Seberang Jaya and 31,000 units in Batu Kawan, Penang. 'Each unit will be sold between RM225,000 and RM420,000, and will be freehold. 'The sale of this project is open to Malaysians, regardless of whether you are a native of Penang or from another state,' he said.
The Star
11 hours ago
- The Star
City-state under cyber siege
The city-state is dealing with a 'serious' cyberattack against its critical infrastructure by a highly sophisticated entity, the country's coordinating minister for national security said. The attack, part of a sophisticated level of cyberhacks called advanced persistent threats (APTs), poses a serious danger to Singapore and could undermine national security, K. Shanmugam disclosed in a speech late on Friday. 'I can say that it is serious and it is ongoing. And it has been identified to be UNC3886,' said Shanmugam, who is also the home affairs minister. Shanmugam did not disclose the group's sponsors, but UNC3886 has been pinpointed by Mandiant, a cybersecurity firm owned by Google, as a cyberespionage group involved in global attacks. 'Even as we speak, UNC3886 is attacking our critical infrastructure right now,' he said, adding that Singapore's Cyber Security Agency (CSA) and relevant authorities were dealing with the issue. APTs are highly sophisticated and well-resourced actors that typically steal sensitive information and disrupt essential services such as healthcare, telecom, water, transport and power, Shanmugam said. 'If it succeeds, it can conduct espionage and it can cause major disruption to Singapore and Singaporeans,' Shanmugam warned. A successful breach of Singapore's power system, for example, could disrupt electricity supply and have knock-on effects on essential services such as healthcare and transport. 'There are also economic implications. Our banks, airports and industries would not be able to operate. Our economy can be substantially affected,' he said. He said that between 2021 and 2024, suspected APTs against Singapore increased more than fourfold. A cyberbreach on a public healthcare cluster in 2018 accessed the medication records of about 160,000 patients, including then-prime minister Lee Hsien Loong. The attack on Singapore's critical infrastructure 'highlights the extraordinary challenges posed by APT actors,' said Satnam Narang, senior staff research engineer at US-based cybersecurity firm Tenable. 'Combating such stealthy opponents is becoming increasingly demanding as the scale and complexity of IT infrastructure that organisations and nations must defend continues to grow,' he said. — AFP
