Google is taken for granted as a dominant force in the generative-AI market—so it’s easy to forget that, in the initial frenzy following the release of ChatGPT, the search giant was caught flat-footed. The company raced to catch up with OpenAI, and its early models made some basic and highly publicized errors.

During the status conference, Google attorney John E. Schmidtlein disputed that AI remedies are relevant. While he agreed that "AI is key to the future of search," he warned that "extraordinary" proposed remedies would "hobble" Google's AI innovation, Law360 reported.

The DOJ’s proposals clued in the public to what the government really wants out of Google. Though the complaint was filed in 2020, the first phase of the trial focused only on w