The European Commission (EC) has launched an antitrust investigation into Google for allegedly training its artificial intelligence (AI) models using data from websites and YouTube videos without the permission of intellectual property owners. The EC said Google did not adequately compensate copyright holders for works uploaded to YouTube videos or used for quick searches in AI Mode and AI Overviews.
Website owners, for example, were not given the option to block their content from being used by AI Mode and AI Overviews. What action Google will take if it is found guilty has not yet been announced by the EC. European Union (EU) law prohibits companies from abusing their dominant market position to give them an advantage over competitors.
Over the past two years, the world's leading technology companies have been subject to various actions for business practices that are said to be anti-competitive. Google was found to have a monopoly in the web search business, with more than 80% of the market. There are suggestions that Google should be broken up to give other companies a chance to compete and give users better choices.
