CNN
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Microsoft boss Satya Nadella warned of a “nightmare” scenario for the internet on Monday Google’s dominance in online search It allowed a situation to continue that started with desktop and mobile search but expanded into the emerging battlefield of artificial intelligence, he said.
Nadella testified as part of that on Monday Extensive US government antitrust litigation Unlike Google it is now on day 14. He is the highest-ranking technology executive to testify so far during the trial, which focuses on Google’s power as the default search engine on mobile devices and browsers around the world.
Nadella took the stage in a suit and tie and portrayed Google as a tech giant that blocks customers’ access to competing search engines. His statement reflected frustration with the long-standing rivalry between Microsoft and Google, adding to weeks of tension in the trial. (Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)
Central to Google’s strategy were its deals with companies like Apple, which made Google the default search engine for millions of Internet users.
“You wake up in the morning, you brush your teeth, you Google,” Nadella said.
Nadella testified that every year he was CEO of Microsoft he tried unsuccessfully to convince Apple to abandon Google as its default search partner. Nadella added that Microsoft is willing to spend about $15 billion a year for the privilege. (A senior Apple executive, Eddie Cue, testified last week that Apple has always viewed Google as the best search product for its users, a claim that Google itself has repeated throughout the trial.)
But what Nadella sees is that the vast amount of search data given to Google as part of its virtualization deal could help Google train its own AI models to be better than everyone else’s — which could give Google an advantage. They are irreplaceable in the world field of generative artificial intelligence. Which will further consolidate his power.
“In the age of AI, it’s going to be very difficult to compete with someone who has a fundamental advantage,” Nadella said.
Although Microsoft is profitable and has invested nearly $100 billion over the past 20 years, Bing has only a single-digit market share in mobile search and slightly more — in the teens — in desktop search, Nadella said. He added that his dream is for Bing to represent at least 20% of the market in both areas.
Nadella noted that Bing is struggling to gain market share because Google, as the default search provider on billions of devices, gets a lot of data about search queries, which helps Google understand what users are interested in. He added that this “dynamic data” allowed Google to stay on top of the Bing search engine for years.
“Every typo in a new movie, every local restaurant you misspell, is a huge contribution to improving your search quality,” Nadella explained. Because the physical world is constantly changing, it’s important to track changes in search trends to keep your search engine relevant when historical data becomes less relevant. Nadella previously led Microsoft’s cloud computing business and led the company’s search and advertising engineering teams for several years, so he is well-versed in Bing’s various challenges.
Now, Nadella says that same data facility could be a “huge nightmare” as large language models compete based on the data they’re trained on.
“The worrying thing is that it reminds me of what happened with the distribution deal [in search]”, to testify.
When questioned by Google’s lawyers, Nadella admitted that in some cases it’s not just the default settings that determine success: Google managed to overtake the default settings of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer on Windows PCs and became the market-leading desktop web browser.
But Nadella attributes Google’s success to the relative openness of the Windows platform and claims that the more tightly controlled mobile operating system and search default status play a bigger role than the desktop web browser competition.
According to Microsoft’s CEO, Google is not only concerned with training its models on search queries, but also enters into agreements with content publishers to ensure that the company has exclusive access to their materials for AI training purposes. In Nadella’s private meeting with publishers, he said he now heard that Google “wants you to write this check, and we want you to write the corresponding check.” (Google did not immediately respond to questions about these offers.)
The requests raise concerns about “what is available to the public today.” [may not be] AI training is “available to the public tomorrow”, the certificate says.
While Microsoft and Apple have their own defaults—eg, Apple makes Maps the default mapping app on iOS devices—Google goes further than other tech companies in using “carrots and sticks” to get users to use its products as standards. , Nadella claimed. . He pointed to Google’s licensing requirements, which make an installed app a prerequisite to using the Google Play Store as a prerequisite for using the Android operating system — another contentious issue in the trial. Nadella said the equivalent would be if Microsoft threatened to block Microsoft Office if Bing wasn’t the default search engine, a move he said would not be in Microsoft’s commercial interest.
Acknowledging that Google would not have been in its dominant position had it not been for Microsoft’s antitrust dispute with the US government in the 1990s, Nadella said the situation regarding Google is completely different today. Internet search, especially on mobile devices, is the world’s largest software business opportunity.
Nadella believes that websites and publishers work to improve Google’s search algorithm rather than Bing’s, as advertisers flock to Google, and users stick with what they know.
In his failed talks with Apple, Nadella said he tried to argue that Bing’s current role was nothing more than a useful tool for Apple to “increase the value” of hosting Google as the default search provider — but that Bing was an important counterpoint to Google. . And this is what Apple should consider… invest in a Microsoft alternative to be competitive. Nadella said he suggested running Bing on Apple devices as a form of “public good”.
“Suppose Bing goes out of business,” Nadella said. “They believe that Google will continue to pay [Apple]?
