Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI has looked at times like a glimmer of hope for its Bing search engine in its longstanding battle with Google, but Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella painted a different picture during the search giant’s antitrust trial.
Nadella testified Monday that he worries Google will use its profits from search to strike exclusive deals with publishers for training its AI models, further boosting its market share to the detriment of Microsoft and other rivals, according to The Verge and Bloomberg News, reporting from inside the courtroom in Washington, D.C.
- “I worry that this vicious cycle I’m trapped in … is only going to get more vicious,” Nadella testified, according to The Verge.
- “You get up in the morning, you brush your teeth and you search on Google,” he said at another point, Bloomberg reports.
The introduction of Bing AI Chat has had little to no impact on Bing’s market share, with Google above 90% and Bing at 3% as of September, according to StatCounter. Microsoft has disputed these numbers in the past, but not to the extent that it would make a material difference in Google’s market dominance.
Testifying on Monday, Nadella dismissed as “bogus” Google’s argument that it’s easy for users to change their search defaults, according to a Reuters report.
According to earlier testimony in the case, Microsoft was prepared to lose money in a deal with Apple to make Bing the default on iPhone and other devices. Nadella testified that he believes Apple was using its negotiations with Microsoft to “bid up the price” for the deal that it signed with Google, Bloomberg reports.
