US government lawyers argued that artificial intelligence is set to increase the tech giant's dominance in internet searches and urged a federal judge to order Google to split off its Chrome browser.
At a hearing before District Judge Amit Mehta, who is deliberating "remedies" following his historic ruling last year that Google had an unlawful monopoly in online search, the Department of Justice (DOJ) presented its case.
One of the IT firms making significant investments to become a leader in artificial intelligence is Google, which is integrating the technology into its search engine and other internet services.
By suggesting a spinoff of its popular Chrome and threatening to compel the sale of its Android mobile operating system, Google retorted that the United States had gone much beyond the bounds of the lawsuit.
According to Google President of Global Affairs Kent Walker, the case centered on Google's distribution agreements with partners like Apple and Samsung.
Days after another US judge this month declared that Google had monopoly power in the online ad technology market—a legal setback that could shake the tech giant's income engine—Google's fight to defend Chrome was revived.
Alphabet-owned Google was sued for antitrust by the federal government and more than a dozen US states, alleging that it had engaged in unlawful behavior to control three areas of digital advertising: ad exchanges, advertiser tools, and publisher ad servers.
The plaintiffs claimed that since Google ad software products are used by the great majority of websites, publishers have no means to exclude Google's advertising technology.
Judge Leonie Brinkema of the District Court partially rejected the argument regarding the tools used by advertisers, but she agreed with the majority of that rationale, finding that Google had established an unlawful monopoly over ad software and publisher tools.
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The judge came to the conclusion that by removing desirable product features and enforcing anticompetitive customer policies, Google strengthened its monopoly power.