FILE PHOTO: Gemini logo is seen in this illustration taken May 20, 2024. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
(Reuters) -Google will integrate Gemini into its Chrome browser for users in the U.S. starting Thursday, just weeks after a federal judge spared the company from a forced breakup in an antitrust case.
Alphabet-owned Google won't have to sell the browser, a judge in Washington said earlier this month, handing a rare win to Big Tech in its battle with U.S. antitrust enforcers, but ordered it to share data with rivals to open up competition in online search.
The Gemini AI models add-on to Chrome will be available to Mac and Windows desktop users in the U.S. with their language set to English, Google said in a blog post on Thursday.
Starting soon, Apple's iOS Chrome app will also have Gemini built into it.
Gemini in Chrome will roll out to businesses in the coming weeks via Google Workspace and also on mobile phones in the U.S.
The tech giant also built a deeper integration between Gemini in Chrome and other Google apps, such as Calendar, YouTube and Maps.
Google will add agentic capabilities that can perform multi-step tasks to Gemini in Chrome in the coming months. It will also find previously visited webpages and enable summarization of content from multiple websites, among other upgrades.
The integration is also a push to compete against other companies providing agentic browsers, like Perplexity, which in August made a $34.5 billion unsolicited all-cash offer for Chrome.
Its AI-powered browser, Comet, can perform certain tasks on a user's behalf.
The ruling by Judge Amit Mehta earlier in September allows Google to retain control of Chrome and Android mobile operating system, while barring certain exclusive contracts with device makers and browser developers. Google can continue making payments to partners such as Apple to feature its search engine, a practice central to its dominance in online search.
Apple has approached Google to use Gemini AI to revamp the Siri voice assistant, Bloomberg News had reported in August.
(Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Alan Barona)
