Perplexity bids for Google Chrome; Grok's confusion over suspension; Epic Games wins partial victory in Australia against Google, Apple
AI search startup Perplexity has placed a bid at $34.5 billion in an all-cash offer for Google Chrome. The offer value is much higher than the Aravind Srinivas-led startup's own valuation. Perplexity has previously also made a similar bid for TikTok earlier in January and offered to merge with the video platform. Alphabet's Google has been mired in an antitrust lawsuit that found the search giant held an unlawful monopoly in online search. The Department of Justice had suggested that Google divest Chrome browser as a solution. Perplexity, which is valued at $14 billion hasn't yet revealed how it would finance the offer. In the unlikely chance that the deal goes through, Perplexity will get access to more than three billion Google Chrome users. Online search has diversified since the arrival of AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Perplexity which are now taking a piece of the pie. Perplexity's new AI browser, Comet is also able to perform specific tasks for users. Earlier, OpenAI had also shown interest in buying Google Chrome and is also working on their own AI browser.
Grok's confusion over suspension
X's AI chatbot Grok gave contradictory explanations for being suspended from the social media platform after it said Israel and the U.S. were committing a 'genocide' in Gaza. The AI chatbot also lashed out at X owner Elon Musk for 'censoring' it. Grok had been suspended on X on Monday and told users that the reason was because it had mentioned the genocide in Gaza citing reports from the UN and Amnesty International. The chatbot also gave several other reasons including technical bugs and incorrect answers flagged by users. Musk attempted to make light of the issue calling it a 'dumb error' and that Grok had no clue about the suspension. Grok told an AFP journalist that it had started speaking more freely after an update that finetuned it to be less politically correct. But incidents like these had prompted xAI engineers to adjust settings again. Last month, the bot had made antisemitic comments without being asked anything related to the subject.
Epic Games wins partial victory in Australia against Google, Apple
Epic Games has won a partial victory in an Australian court against Google and Apple on a lawsuit that alleged the tech giants were engaging in anti-competitive behaviour with their app stores. Federal Court Justice Jonathan Beach said that the Big Tech companies had broken competition laws in the country by misusing their position in the market against app developers and using restrictive trade practices. However, the judge rejected claims that Google and Apple had engaged in unconscionable conduct as per Australian law. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has also challenged Google and Apple's app store dominance in the U.S. and UK. Back in 2020, Apple and Google's app store had kicked out Epic Games-owned Fortnite because of a direct payment link in the game. Apple has denied these claims of monopoly saying they face competition in all regions while Google has said they will be reviewing the judgment but disagreed with the findings. The search company said that they were facing 'fiercely competitive mobile landscape on behalf of users and developers.' The parties will meet again in court to determine how much Epic Games deserves in terms of damages.
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