Google Jujitsu: Stop Fighting the Future and Start Powering It

Over the past 25 or so years, I’ve argued that Google has built a massive database of intentions — the aggregate result of every search ever entered, every page of results ever tendered, and every path taken (there’s a lot more to it, but that’s the key stuff). I’ve tracked this extraordinary artifact since 2003, and have come to believe that Google’s control over it has become a inhibitor to innovation and flourishing in our society.

The US government — yes, even this one — agrees with me. In the nearly three decades since Google first launched, the company has gone from champion of the open Internet to established monopolist whose principle business is protecting its profits. With the advent of consumer AI, that principle business is imperiled. Google is protecting a revenue stream that it must understand is no longer defensible, either by law or by practice.

Instead of innovating in its approach and business model, Google is digging in its heels and hoping it can exhaust the government through years of appeals, half measures, and delay. It’s a well worn playbook, and it’s bad for everyone, including Google.

But there’s another way, one that would re-establish Google as the innovator it once was. It’s bold and crazy by most traditional business standards, but it’s most likely the only…