Google’s Big AI Advantage Over ChatGPT Is Impossible to Justify

After being caught on the back foot by OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT, Alphabet Inc.’s Google has performed a miracle: It has caught up. Its artificial-intelligence models are now as good as its rival’s. But did Google achieve that acceleration by playing fair? Perhaps not. And the regulatory answer to that question could hurt if the company is forced to make a change that hampers its AI prospects, even if that’s healthier for the market.

European regulators have just launched an investigation into Google’s rollout of its AI Overviews and AI Mode features — which augment its dominant search engine — to see whether it imposed unfair terms on content creators, giving its model an edge over others.