美国司法部反垄断高级官员决定要求法官迫使谷歌出售其Chrome浏览器，这将是对全球最大科技公司之一的历史性打击。
知情人士称，司法部将要求这位法官采取与人工智能及其Android智能手机操作系统相关的措施。这位法官曾在8月份裁定谷歌非法垄断了搜索市场。
知情人士说，反垄断官员以及参与此案的各州也计划在周三建议联邦法官阿米特·梅塔（Amit Mehta）施加数据许可要求。由于讨论的是机密事项，知情人士要求不具名。
如果梅塔接受这些提议，它们有可能重塑在线搜索市场和蓬勃发展的人工智能行业。该案件是在特朗普第一届政府时期提起的，并在乔·拜登总统任期内继续进行。这标志着自20年前美国政府试图分拆微软（Microsoft）失败以来，美国对一家科技公司采取的最激进的控制措施。
拥有全球最受欢迎的网络浏览器是谷歌广告业务的关键。该公司能够看到登录用户的活动，并利用这些数据更有效地进行目标促销，这是其大部分收入的来源。谷歌也一直在使用Chrome引导用户访问其旗舰人工智能产品Gemini，该产品有可能从一个问答机器人演变为一个在网络上跟随用户的助手。
b谷歌负责监管事务的副总裁李-安妮?穆赫兰（Lee-Anne Mulholland）表示，司法部“继续推行一项激进的议程，远远超出了本案中的法律问题。”她还说，“政府以这种方式插手此事，会在最需要的时候伤害消费者、开发者和美国的技术领导地位。”
司法部拒绝置评。
谷歌股价尾盘一度下跌1.8%，至172.16美元。截至今年收盘，该股已累计上涨25%。
反垄断执法人员希望法官命令谷歌出售Chrome浏览器——全球使用最广泛的浏览器——因为它是许多人使用其搜索引擎的关键入口，知情人士说。
知情人士补充称，如果救助方案的其他一些方面创造了一个更有竞争力的市场，政府可以选择在晚些时候决定是否有必要出售Chrome。根据网络流量分析服务公司StatCounter的数据，Chrome浏览器控制着美国约61%的市场份额。
在准备这项建议的过程中，政府律师在过去三个月里会见了数十家公司。知情人士说，各州仍在考虑增加一些提案，一些细节可能会改变。
知情人士说，反垄断官员放弃了一个更严厉的选择，即迫使谷歌出售Android。
梅塔在8月份裁定谷歌在在线搜索和搜索文本广告市场都违反了反垄断法，而在此之前，去年进行了为期10周的审判。该公司已表示计划上诉。
法官将在4月份举行为期两周的听证会，讨论b谷歌必须做出哪些改变以纠正非法行为，并计划在2025年8月前做出最终裁决。
知情人士表示，该机构和各州已决定建议，要求谷歌对其广受欢迎的搜索引擎的结果和数据进行许可，并为网站提供更多选择，以防止其内容被谷歌的人工智能产品使用。
The antitrust enforcers are set to propose that Google uncouple its Android smartphone operating system from its other products, including search and its Google Play mobile app store, which are now sold as a bundle, the people said. They are also prepared to seek a requirement that Google share more information with advertisers and give them more control over where their ads appear.
Lawyers from the Justice Department and state attorneys general included all of those options in an initial filing in October, as well as a ban on the type of exclusive contracts that were at the centre of the case against Google.
A forced spin-off, if it happens, would also hinge on finding an interested buyer. Those who could afford and might want the property, like Amazon, are also facing antitrust scrutiny that may prevent such a mega-deal.
“My view is this is extremely unlikely,” Mandeep Singh, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst, said in an email. But, he added, he could see a buyer like OpenAI, the maker of artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT. “That would give it both distribution and an ads business to complement its consumer chatbot subscriptions.”
Google now displays artificial intelligence-based answers at the top of its search pages billed as “AI Overviews.” While websites can opt-out of having their information used by Google to create AI models, they can’t afford to opt out of the overviews because that would risk pushing them down in search results, making it harder to reach their customers.
Website publishers have complained that the feature dampens traffic and advertising dollars since users rarely click through to see the data being used to power those results.
Regarding data licensing, the antitrust enforcers plan to propose two options: That Google sell the underlying “click and query” data and also separately syndicate its search results, according to the people.
The company currently sells syndicated search results, but with restrictions, such as preventing their use on mobile. Forcing Google to syndicate its search results would allow rival search engines and AI start-ups to quickly improve their quality, while the data feed would allow others to build their own search index. – Bloomberg
