EU Competition Authorities Review Investigation into Google-Samsung Electronics 'AI Collaboration'

European Union (EU) competition authorities have indicated the possibility of launching an investigation into the collaboration between Samsung Electronics and Google on generative artificial intelligence (AI). Google's on-device generative AI model 'Gemini Nano' will be embedded in Samsung Electronics' flagship smartphone series, the 'Galaxy S24'.

According to the Associated Press (AP) and other sources on the 29th (local time), Margrethe Vestager, the EU's Executive Vice President for Competition, stated, "We have requested information necessary to better understand the impact of the agreement between Google and Samsung Electronics to pre-install 'Gemini Nano' on certain Samsung devices."

Samsung Electronics formed a partnership with Google earlier this year and has been pre-installing 'Gemini Nano' and 'Gemini Pro' on the S24 series.

Samsung Galaxy S24 Series
Photo by Samsung Electronics

AP interpreted Vestager's remarks as stemming from concerns that large information technology (IT) companies might be blocking consumer access channels of relatively smaller AI-related companies.

Vestager also announced that additional investigations will be conducted regarding the partnership between Microsoft (MS) and OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT. MS, which has maintained a cooperative relationship with OpenAI since 2019, is known to have invested $13 billion (approximately 18 trillion KRW) and holds a 49% stake in OpenAI.

Vestager said that an investigation into the MS-OpenAI partnership has been ongoing since last year, but it was concluded that it does not fall under the scope of the EU Merger Regulation.

However, she added, "It is necessary to clarify whether such partnerships are a disguise for one party having dominant influence over the other," and stated that inquiry letters have been sent to MS's competitors asking whether the MS-OpenAI partnership hinders competition.