Chrome, chaos, antitrust, Armageddon - who's ready?

#368: Judges rarely swing hammers this heavy. It could rewrite the future of AI, publishing, and Silicon Valley itself...

Welcome to new subs this week from The Guardian, the University of Technology in Sydney, Canadian VC Pennant, British news agency PA Media, the agents of (my lookalike) Jason Statham, as well as Ben Affleck, Leo DiCaprio, Natalie Portman and Justin Timberlake SSM&L in LA, Hearst in Washington, strategic marketers Strivenn in the UK, Canadian B2B publisher Newcom, PayPal, and many more.

In a few days we will receive a judge’s ruling on how he thinks Google’s monopoly on search should be resolved.

Top of a long list of demands is to break the company up, by handing over the Chrome to a new custodian. Ecosia became the latest to put its hand up this week.

Other remedies include forcing Google to separate search from AI training, and for a multi-billion fund to be handed to publishers to pay for the disruption.

In combination, this creates a chaotic outlook for media owners, boards, employees, and investors. It’s frightening, and significant, and happening soon.

Last week, I gathered leaders from hundreds of publishers worldwide together in a series of calls across America, Europe, Asia and Australasia, to put it in perspective.

Today, I am sharing it here because building a better future can only happen if we build on the foundations of understanding where we are.

And that begins with Google losing all three of its antitrust trials…