The US government wants to prove that Google’s competitors face overwhelming barriers to entry as part of its antitrust case against the tech giant. So she’s turning to ChaptGPT’s head of product, Nick Turley, to testify as a witness in the hope that he’ll help strengthen her case.
In a landmark ruling last August, a court determined that Google has a monopoly on search. While Google appeals the decision, the Justice Department is now asking the court to decide what penalties it should face, such as spin off Chrome or a 10-year ban on releasing any browser products.
To bolster its case, the DOJ has drawn various Google competitors such as OpenAI, Microsoft and Perplexity. She wants specific executives, like Perplexity’s chief business officer Dmitry Shevelenko, to testify. (It’s not yet clear whether Shevelenko will do so. Perplexity did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)
The latest legal filings confirm that a senior executive from OpenAI, Nick Turley, head of product for ChatGPT, will testify as a witness for the US government’s case.
“Mr. Turley is a witness handpicked by Plaintiffs (DD) to testify on OpenAI’s behalf,” Google’s lawyers wrote in a Jan. 16 legal filing.
“Mr. Turley is the OpenAI witness who will testify on behalf of the government at the evidentiary hearing,” another filing from Jan. 16 said.
None of the filings specify exactly when Turley will testify. Turley is expected to be questioned by the US about AI’s “generative relationships with research entry points, distribution, barriers to entry and expansion, and data sharing,” according to the filing. The DOJ has not given details about what it wants to ask Turley. (These are exactly the same topics Perplexity’s CBO wants to ask about.)
DOJ uses the term “search entry points” to refer to products like Google Chrome that people use to search the web. Notably, in October 2024, ChatGPT launched its own AI search browser.
To prepare for Turley’s testimony, Google has subpoenaed OpenAI for documents related to the case. But the two companies are now at loggerheads over the amount of evidence OpenAI must provide.
In a legal filing on January 16, Google criticized OpenAI for producing “few amazing documents”. OpenAI’s lawyers hit back, noting that Google’s requests for documents from top executives like CEO Sam Altman appear to be a “Trojan horse intended to harass OpenAI executives.”
OpenAI has agreed to share some documents from Turley’s work files related to OpenAI’s strategy for AI products, its integration of AI into research-related products and its partnership with Microsoft, a letter from OpenAI’s lawyers shows .
Google says it needs more documents from more executives, as relying primarily on Turley “would prejudice Google” since Turley is a witness “handpicked” by the US government, according to the filing.
Google is also seeking documents from OpenAI that predate the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, claiming these “could undermine Mr. Turley’s testimony about barriers to entry in a way that post-release documents would not.” But OpenAI says the old documents “cannot meaningfully represent” the current AI landscape.
The two sides appear at an impasse, and OpenAI has asked the court to reject the full extent of the evidence requested by Google.
OpenAI and Google did not respond to requests for comment. The DOJ declined to comment.
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