Google Ordered to Give A.I. Rivals More Access on Android Smartphones

Google was ordered by European Union regulators on Thursday to lift restrictions that limit how rival A.I. companies can reach users of Android smartphones, a sign of increased government scrutiny of the booming business of artificial intelligence.

The decision is a response to fears that Google will leverage the enormous user base of Android, which powers about 60 percent of all smartphones in the European Union, to gain an edge in the growing A.I. market and undercut competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic.

As the daily use of artificial intelligence grows across society, an emerging commercial battleground is how to reach users through their smartphones. A.I. companies believe that the more deeply an A.I. service is integrated into a person’s hand-held device — including email, photos and other apps — the more a chatbot can serve as a personal assistant. Think of asking a chatbot to order a car service, suggest a response to a text message or provide information about a recently visited location.

Google and Apple are seen as having a major advantage because the companies make the world’s most used smartphone software, allowing them to set the rules for app developers trying to reach mobile users.

On Thursday, E.U. regulators said the company would be required to give rival A.I. services “equal footing,” including through voice commands and the ability to delegate actions in apps. The decision is binding, and Google is required to carry out the changes by next July.

Google was also ordered to begin sharing anonymized search engine data with rivals, including makers of A.I. chatbots, by January, in an attempt to create more competition.

Google did not say if it planned to challenge the decisions in court. The company said European regulators risked creating new security and privacy vulnerabilities because outside developers would get access to sensitive information kept on a person’s smartphone or search history.

“Today’s decisions risk undermining vital privacy and security guardrails for millions of Europeans,” Kent Walker, Google’s general counsel, said in a statement.

The European Union has long been the world’s most aggressive regulator of tech industry business practices and is now expanding its scrutiny into artificial intelligence. Authorities view the technology as the new entry point for people to gain access to digital services and the online world.

An E.U. competition law, the Digital Markets Act, requires large tech companies like Google and Apple to make their products interoperable. That means outside developers should be allowed to offer competing A.I. digital assistants instead of Google’s Gemini and Apple’s Siri.

The competition law is creating friction. In June, Apple said it would withhold the release of new A.I. features for Siri in the European Union because it could not reach an agreement with regulators.

At the same time, A.I. companies are taking steps to develop their own devices to loosen Apple’s and Google’s grip. Last year, OpenAI hired Apple’s former top designer, Jony Ive, to lead its efforts to develop new A.I.-centric hardware products.

Last week, Apple sued OpenAI, accusing it of stealing company secrets. OpenAI denied the accusations.