谷歌母公司Alphabet首席执行官桑达尔·皮查伊。图片来源：Marek Antoni Iwanczuk—SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images
• OpenAI旗下ChatGPT负责人在谷歌反垄断案听证会作证时表示，如果Alphabet被强制拆分Chrome浏览器，该公司有意收购。OpenAI虽有自主搜索引擎，但在推广方面一直困难重重，如果能借助Chrome的影响力将获得巨大优势。
OpenAI旗下ChatGPT负责人称，如果反垄断诉讼结果勒令谷歌拆分Chrome浏览器，该公司很乐意接手。
在为期三周的听证会上，ChatGPT负责人尼克·特利表明了公司立场。本次听证会主要为了确定谷歌被联邦法官裁定垄断搜索引擎市场后，业务要如何调整。
据彭博社（Bloomberg）报道，听证会上被问到OpenAI会不会考虑收购谷歌Chrome时，特利回答道，“是的，我们会考虑收购，其他很多公司也会考虑。”
目前，利用Chrome浏览器插件可使用ChatGPT搜索服务，如果浏览器能深度集成ChatGPT，“就能提供非常棒的体验，”特利补充道。
去年10月，OpenAI将大语言模型的自然语言与谷歌之类搜索引擎的搜索功能结合，推出了ChatGPT搜索产品。Chrome应用商店数据显示，ChatGPT搜索用户数已达300万。同时据科技媒体TechCrunch报道，3月苹果应用商店中ChatGPT主应用下载量达4600万次，位居全球榜首。
要打入搜索领域并非易事，因为谷歌掌控着美国互联网搜索市场约90%份额。OpenAI在苹果和谷歌构建的封闭生态系统内尝试推广产品时便屡屡受挫。
OpenAI已与苹果达成协议，将ChatGPT集成到苹果旗舰产品iPhone中，但始终未能与安卓智能手机制造商达成协议。彭博社报道称，1月以来，谷歌一直付费让三星手机预装其人工智能模型Gemini。特利坦言，ChatGPT未能与三星达成协议，原因是谷歌资金实力超过OpenAI。
“ChatGPT强大的竞争对手控制着人们发现产品的入口，包括我们的产品，人们发现产品主要通过浏览器或应用商店，”特利说道。
Info-Tech研究集团首席研究主管布莱恩·杰克逊指出，收购Chrome将极大改善ChatGPT在推广方面的困境。
杰克逊告诉《财富》杂志：“如果能将全球最受欢迎的浏览器Chrome纳入麾下，立刻就能拥有庞大的用户基础，而且有机会收集浏览器互动数据，有效抵消谷歌为Gemini打造的市场优势。”
目前还不清楚谷歌会不会真拆分Chrome，不过特利表示，OpenAI已不满足与微软的合作，正寻找其他方法优化产品。
法院正考虑的另一解决方案是，强制谷歌与竞争对手共享搜索索引，如果真执行可能大幅提升OpenAI搜索产品的竞争力。
特利在证词中表示，OpenAI的目标是打造能帮用户完成任务的“超级助手”，而搜索能力对根据实时信息提供准确答案极为重要。
特利未直接点明，但表示ChatGPT发现微软必应的搜索信息存在“严重质量问题”，由于公司与微软合作，所以能获取相关信息。
针对《财富》杂志的置评请求，微软没有立即回应。
谷歌的代表曾与Meta就人工智能产品达成类似协议，然而还是口头拒绝OpenAI访问其搜索索引。特利表示，如果能获取相关数据，OpenAI将迎来彻底变革。
“如果能访问谷歌索引，内容或信号背后的数据，将加速本公司索引的开发，”他说。（财富中文网）
译者：梁宇
审校：夏林
• OpenAI’s head of ChatGPT testified in Google’s antitrust case that the company would be interested in buying the Chrome web browser if Alphabet is forced to spin it off. OpenAI has its own search product but has struggled with distribution; access to Chrome’s reach would be a boon for the company.
OpenAI’s head of ChatGPT said the company would happily scoop up Chrome if it were spun off from Google as part of its ongoing antitrust suit.
Nick Turley, the ChatGPT chief, made his company’s intentions clear during his testimony as part of a three-week-long trial to determine how Google must change its business after it was deemed a search monopolist by a federal judge.
“Yes, we would, as would many other parties,” Turley said in his testimony, responding to a question about whether OpenAI would consider buying Google Chrome, Bloomberg reported.
As of now, ChatGPT search is available as a browser extension on Chrome, but if ChatGPT were fully integrated into the web browser, “you could offer a really incredible experience,” Turley added.
In October, OpenAI released ChatGPT search, which blends the natural language of the LLM with the search functionality of a search engine like Google. ChatGPT search has 3 million users, according to the Chrome Web Store. Meanwhile, ChatGPT’s regular app on the Apple App Store was the most-downloaded app globally in March with 46 million downloads, TechCrunch reported.
Breaking into search is tough, as Google controls about 90% of the U.S. internet search market. OpenAI has also run into the pitfalls of trying to distribute its products within the walled gardens built by Apple and Google.
OpenAI has already struck a deal with Apple to integrate ChatGPT into the company’s flagship iPhone. But it hasn’t been able to reach agreements with Android smartphone makers. Since January, Google has been paying to preinstall its AI model, Gemini, on Samsung phones, Bloomberg reported. Turley said ChatGPT hasn’t been able to strike a deal with Samsung because Google can outspend OpenAI.
ChatGPT’s powerful competitors “control the access points for how people discover products, including our product. People discover via a browser or via an app store,” Turley said.
Buying Chrome would be a boon for ChatGPT’s distribution, noted Brian Jackson, principal research director at Info-Tech Research Group.
“Owning Chrome, the most popular web browser globally, would instantly give it a huge customer footprint,” Jackson told Fortune. “In addition, it’d have new opportunities to harvest data from browser interactions, and it would effectively fend off Google’s marketplace advantage for Gemini.”
Although it’s unclear if Google Chrome will be spun off at all, OpenAI is already looking beyond its partnership with Microsoft to improve its product, Turley said.
Another remedy being considered by the court is to force Google to share its search index with rivals, a move that could turbocharge OpenAI’s own efforts to improve its search product.
During his testimony, Turley said OpenAI’s ambition is to make a “super assistant” that would help users with tasks, but search capability is fundamental to helping the product provide accurate answers based on real-time information.
Without referring to it directly, Turley said ChatGPT found “significant quality issues” with Microsoft Bing’s search information, which it has access to as part of its partnership with Microsoft.
Microsoft did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
Representatives for Google verbally declined to give OpenAI access to its search index, even after striking a similar deal with Meta for its AI products. Turley said having access to that data would be a game changer for OpenAI.
“Having access to the data that underlies Google’s index, the content or signals, would accelerate the development of our own index,” he said.