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EU Presses Google to Crack Open AI and Search Data
“Our goal is to keep the AI market open, unlock competition on the merits and promote innovation, to the benefit of consumers and businesses,” said Henna Virkkunen, European Commission.
Tom Quinn
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The EU is flexing its regulatory muscles, issuing Google detailed instructions on opening up its wealth of search data and AI tools like Gemini to level the playing field for competing firms.
The bloc’s regulatory arm, the European Commission, announced it has opened two “specification proceedings” to steer Google toward compliance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), and to formalise discussions with the tech giant over unresolved compliance issues.
Brussels said that it would first look to ensure Google provides third-party AI service providers with access to the same features and performance as those available across its own services, which could include the firm’s flagship Gemini chatbot.
The guidance will stretch to hardware and software features controlled by Google’s Android operating system, with the EU aiming to ensure third-party providers have “equal opportunity to innovate and compete” within the AI ecosystem on mobile devices.
The Commission said it will also “assist” Google in opening up reams of search data to other providers, including access to anonymised ranking, query, click and view data – another obligation under the DMA.
The EU’s review will cover the scope of the data involved, how it is anonymised, conditions for access, and which AI chatbot providers are eligible to receive it. If Google complies, the Commission said rival search engines would be able to tap into the firm’s dataset to create “genuine alternatives” to Google Search.
“Millions of Europeans rely daily on online search engines, and increasingly on AI services,” said Henna Virkkunen, executive VP for tech sovereignty with the European Commission.
“Today’s proceedings under the Digital Markets Act will provide guidance to Google to ensure that third-party online search engines and AI providers enjoy the same access to search data and Android operating system as Google’s own services, like Google Search or Gemini.
“Our goal is to keep the AI market open, unlock competition on the merits and promote innovation, to the benefit of consumers and businesses.”
While the Commission has said it intends to wrap up these proceedings within six months, Google has questioned the justification behind the move.
“Android is open by design, and we’re already licensing Search data to competitors under the DMA,” said Clare Kelly, Google’s senior competition counsel, in a statement shared with Reuters.
“However, we are concerned that further rules which are often driven by competitor grievances rather than the interest of consumers, will compromise user privacy, security, and innovation.”
Tom Quinn
Staff Writer, DIGIT
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