The EU moves to restrict Google: requiring the Android ecosystem to open AI and search services to Open AI and others
The European Union has required Google to open some of its services to artificial intelligence competitors such as OpenAI and online search engine competitors. On Thursday (July 16), the European Commission announced on its official website that it had issued two sets of binding regulatory measures to Google under the Digital Markets Act. The purpose of the first normative measure is to ensure that rival AI services have equal access to features on Google Android devices, allowing their services to compete with Google's own AI services such as Gemini.
The European Union has required Google to open some of its services to artificial intelligence competitors such as OpenAI and online search engine competitors. On Thursday (July 16), the European Commission announced on its official website that it had issued two sets of binding regulatory measures to Google under the Digital Markets Act. The purpose of the first normative measure is to ensure that rival AI services have equal access to features on Google Android devices, allowing their services to compete with Google's own AI services such as Gemini. The second regulatory measure aims to rebalance the playing field by allowing third-party search engines to access search data that only Google Search could previously collect at scale. The European Commission explained that on Android phones, rival AI assistants only have limited access to some key functions of Google’s Android operating system. Due to the lack of these permissions, they cannot compete fairly with Google AI services that have full access. Therefore, the European Commission believes that third-party AI assistants are limited in providing innovative services, which makes them less attractive to EU users who own Android devices (60%). The European Commission requires that Google must ensure that users can activate their preferred AI assistant through voice commands. This means that in the future, users in the EU can wake up other AI assistants through voice just like using the "Hey Google" voice command, such as calling a taxi or querying location information. According to the plan, relevant changes will be officially opened to users with the next-generation Android system in July 2027. In addition, the EU also requires Google to share data used to optimize its own search services with OpenAI and other AI chatbots with search functions, but the relevant data must be anonymized. Before opening up its data, Google can first assess competitors for cybersecurity and data protection risks. The measure will be implemented in January next year, and the EU has also developed a formula for calculating charges for shared data. Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission's executive vice president for science and technology, said in a statement: "We hope that through these measures, AI services such as Google Search and Google Gemini will usher in more emerging alternatives, allowing EU users to have richer service choices." In response, Google Chief Legal Officer Kent Walker responded in an emailed statement: "The decision announced today could weaken important protections that millions of European users rely on to protect their privacy and security." He said: "We have repeatedly proposed solutions in the hope of achieving the goals of the Digital Markets Act while protecting user rights, but these rulings ignore a large amount of evidence that users may be harmed." (