Landmark antitrust cases in the technology industry have had a way of marking the transition from one era of computing to the next. They have also accelerated the eclipse of incumbent tech champions and the emergence of new ones, clearing the way for the rise of Microsoft after IBM’s mainframe monopoly came under attack, and for Google after Microsoft was in turn hauled into court.
The US case against Google, which reached a critical point with the publication of sanctions against the company on Tuesday, also comes as the tech industry is on the cusp of a new era. This time, however, the incumbent looks to have come out surprisingly unscathed. The rise of chatbots such as ChatGPT might threaten the power of Google’s monopoly, but the search company looks to have been left well-placed to become one of the leaders — and possibly the dominant player — in the emerging AI market.
It’s no surprise that the ruling has already infuriated Google’s enemies. US regulators were asleep at the wheel for years as Google built and exploited its search monopoly. When it finally came, last year’s judgment was damning: the company was found to have squeezed out rivals by buying up default positions for its search engine on browsers and mobile handsets, giving it exclusive access to billions of people, including on the iPhone.