WEBVTT

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- Last week, the US Department of Justice

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launched an antitrust
investigation against Google,

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accusing the company of running a monopoly

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in the online ad business.

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There's bad news for
the search engine giant.

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Even if Google wins the lawsuit

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it's still in big, big trouble.

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Google is gonna have a
harder time defending itself

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while it's under investigation

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and there's a wolf at the door, AI.

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The DOJ wants the court to break up Google

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and force it to sell big parts
of its advertising empire.

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We'll see if that happens

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but Google could win the antitrust case

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and still lose the war.

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And to understand why let's go
over a little history lesson.

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The DOJ wants the court to break up Google

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and force it to sell big parts
of its advertising empire.

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That's because during and
after an investigation

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for anti-competitive practices

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all that scrutiny makes it harder to

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(bells dinging)

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fight your competitors.

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You have to move carefully
and be a lot more hesitant

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about acquiring smaller businesses.

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And while IBM had its
hands tied behind its back

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a little startup company jumped in

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and took over the tech industry.

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Maybe you've heard of it, Microsoft.

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Then the same thing happened to Microsoft.

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The Justice Department
took Microsoft to court

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for monopolistic practices,
and Microsoft basically won.

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But in the meantime, Apple, Facebook

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and a company called Google

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swooped in and shifted the
world away from Microsoft

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and onto their platforms.

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Well, now it looks like it's Google's turn

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and it couldn't come at a worse time.

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We've already seen how disruptive AI tools

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like ChatGPT can be,

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and one class of technologies

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that's due for a paradigm
shift, is search engines.

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AI tools could revolutionize
the way we access information.

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Search is the background
of Google's business

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and company executives

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are apparently calling
the AI problem code red.

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Google has its own groundbreaking AI

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and it's planning to launch

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an AI chatbot version of Google's
search in the near future.

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But it won't be an easy fight

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especially while the company
is treading carefully

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so it doesn't get in more
trouble with the government.

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For its part, Google
says it's not a monopoly

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and it called out the Justice Department

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for trying to pick winners and losers

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in the highly competitive
advertising technology sector.

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Right.

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- Sure, Jan.

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- We'll see whether the
courts buy that argument

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but even if they do,
Google could be screwed.

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What would be really ironic

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is if Microsoft deals the final blow.

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Microsoft has a multi-billion
dollar partnership

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with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.

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In a few years, we might be
doing our searches on Bing.

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It could be "The Revenge of the Nerds."

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♪ Got me wrecking gonna blow my top ♪

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