ChatGPT’s head of product to testify in the DOJ’s antitrust case against Google

ChatGPT’s head of product, Nick Turley, has been enlisted as part of the witnesses to help the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) in its antitrust lawsuit against Google. The United States government, in its quest to prove that Google’s competitors are facing entry challenges, has turned to the ChatGPT executive. The agency wants Turley to testify, in hopes that it will help solidify its claims.

According to a ruling in August 2024, the court determined that Google held a monopoly in the search engine business. While Google has appealed the verdict, the United States DOJ is still hunting for penalties that the company should face. The DOJ wants several penalties ranging from placing a 10-year ban on the company from releasing any browser product or spinning off Chrome.

ChatGPT exec enlisted as the DOJ’s new witness

The Department of Justice (DOJ), in its bid to help its case against Google, has enlisted several competitors for help. Competitors like Perplexity, Microsoft, and OpenAI have been pulled into the legal tussle. It has also asked Perplexity Chief Business Officer Dmitry Shevelenko to testify. However, it remains unknown if Shevelenko will be willing to testify in the case.

However, according to the recent legal filings, ChatGPT’s Nick Turley will take the stand in favor of the government. The DOJ specifically picked Turley to testify in behalf of OpenAI in the ongoing case. “Mr. Turley is the OpenAI witness who will testify on behalf of the government at the Evidentiary Hearing,” the filing read.

According to the filing, the exact date that Turley will testify has not been picked. However, it is expected that the DOJ will ask him about “generative AI’s relationship with Search Access Points, distribution, barriers to entry and expansion, and data sharing,” according to the document.

The DOJ has not gone into the details of what it intends to ask Turley about, but there is growing suspicion that it intends to ask Shevelenko the same questions. The DOJ’s search access point term refers to products like Google’s browser Chrome, that people use to access the web. Notably, OpenAI launched its AI search browser in October 2024.

Google braces up for Turley’s testimony

Google has taken steps to prepare itself for Turley’s testimony by sending a subpoena to OpenAI, asking for documents related to the case. This has put the firms in a heated argument over the extent of evidence OpenAI is allowed to disclose. In its legal filing, Google criticized OpenAI for sharing only a few documents with them. On the other hand, OpenAI criticized Google’s request, noting that asking for documents on CEO Sam Altman was intended to harass its executives.

According to a letter from OpenAI’s legal counsels, it will share documents related to Turley’s work about the company’s strategy regarding AI products, its Microsoft partnership, and its integration of AI into its search products. However, Google claimed in its filing it wants documents on more executives, noting that limiting it to Turley will only prejudice them since the OpenAI executive was handpicked by the DOJ.

Google also requested documents before the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, noting that the these documents may undermine Turley’s testimony regarding barriers to entry in a way that documents after the launch won’t. OpenAI noted that the old documents before ChatGPT’s launch will not offer any meaningful representation of the current AI landscape. The issue has put both sides in a struggle, with OpenAI urging the court to reject Google’s full scale of requested evidence.

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