Nick Turley, head of ChatGPT products at OpenAI, is scheduled to testify against Google in a US antitrust case. The Justice Department is seeking Mr. Turley’s testimony to prove how Google is allegedly restricting competitors’ entry into the search market. The case stems from an August 2024 ruling that declared Google to have a monopoly on search. Google is appealing the decision, while the Justice Department is seeking penalties including a 10-year ban on spinning off Chrome or releasing new browsers. To strengthen its case, the Justice Department is seeking testimony from executives from various Google competitors, including OpenAI, Microsoft, and Perplexity.
What Google said about the testimony of the person responsible for ChatGPT
In a recent legal filing (spotted by TechCrunch), Google’s lawyers wrote: “Mr. Turley is a witness hand-picked by Plaintiffs (the Department of Justice) to testify on behalf of OpenAI.”
The Justice Department is expected to question Turley on topics such as: “Generative AI and its relationship to search access points, distribution, barriers to entry and expansion, and data sharing.” Filing notes. Specific details about the investigation were not disclosed, but these are consistent with the subject matter that the Department of Justice plans to address with Perplexity’s CBO.
Google said in its filing that OpenAI had produced “surprisingly little documentation” and insisted on requests for additional documentation from other executives. The company argued that it was unfair to rely primarily on Mr. Turley because he was a “hand-picked” witness by the U.S. government.
The company also claims that Google is seeking documents from OpenAI before November 2022. “Mr. Turley’s testimony regarding barriers to entry may be undermined.” More effective than post-release materials.
Another filing read: “Mr. Turley is an OpenAI witness testifying on behalf of the government at evidentiary hearings.”
Meanwhile, OpenAI lawyers said in a letter (provided by Techcrunch) that the company has agreed to share internal documents related to its AI strategy, search integration, and partnership with Microsoft.
