The DOJ wants the CEO of Perplexity to testify in its Google antitrust case

US court ruled in August that Google has the right to search, and when Google complains, the Department of Justice is considering what kind of penalties it can impose – such as break Chrome.

As part of the process, the DOJ wants to call a specific witness, according to the court’s recent statement: Dmitry Shevelenko, the head of the business Mental confusionan AI researcher recently valued at $9 billion, on Reuters.

Brainstorming with other AI tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT Search has emerged as a way to revolutionize online search, because it can provide direct answers to complex questions (although, sometimes with artificial or incorrect information). Google has responded to those threats with its AI search tools, such as AI Overviews, which provide AI-generated answers at the top of search results.

The DOJ wants to question Shevelenko about “AI’s relationship with Search Access Points, distribution, barriers to entry and expansion, and data sharing.”

“Search hotspot” is a term the DOJ uses to describe things like Google Chrome – the place where people go to search the web.

While the filing doesn’t say exactly why the DOJ wants to question Google on these topics, it could help its argument that Google dominates the search industry and shuts out potential competitors, and therefore deserves stronger penalties.

TechCrunch asked Perplexity if it had agreed to have its CEO testify and comment on the lawsuit. Disruption did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did Google.

Emotional confusion is caught in the middle of the conflict, because both sides want information that will help their cases. Google sent Perplexity in October the company’s documents to make its case that it has enough competition in search. (Google also invited Microsoft and OpenAI.)

However, Perplexity has not yet submitted “a single letter” to Google since December 11, the tech giant complained in court, saying that “there are no valid reasons for the delay” after two months of waiting.

For its part, Perplexity says in a filing that it has already agreed to comply with 12 of Google’s 14 requests but is “continuing to assess the potential challenges posed by the collection of documents that may grow.”

Perplexity also says that while it agreed to grant licensing agreements “relating to AI education,” Google wants all of Perplexity’s licensing agreements and that it has asked Google to “meet and provide” about it.