Slater’s remarks at the institute’s 52nd Annual Conference on International Antitrust Law and Policy focused heavily on the remedies ordered by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in United States v. Google LLC.
The district court’s September 2025 remedies decision found that Google had illegally monopolized search markets for more than a decade. The court ordered Google to share competitively critical data with qualified competitors, including AI companies, and to syndicate its search results.
Slater argued that these data-sharing requirements are already setting the foundation for a more innovative and competitive AI industry by preventing Google from leveraging its search dominance into the generative AI space.
The Assistant Attorney General contrasted antitrust enforcement with premature regulation, describing the latter as a "sledgehammer" that can entrench incumbents. She characterized antitrust as a targeted "scalpel" that intervenes only after illegal conduct occurs, allowing the free market to drive innovation.
Slater emphasized that access to high-volume data is a critical input for building competitive AI models. She noted that the finite nature of publicly available data increases the premium on proprietary sources, which could drive consolidation and vertical integration in industries like healthcare.
The speech also touched on consumer data privacy, warning that monopolists may use privacy concerns as a pretext to refuse interoperability and gatekeep data. Slater stated that the Department of Justice must closely scrutinize such claims to ensure AI products can interoperate.
Slater concluded by tying the administration’s broader strategy to competition policy, referencing President Trump and Vice President Vance’s priority of maintaining AI dominance through open markets. She cited the White House’s America’s AI Action Plan, which outlines pillars of innovation, infrastructure, and international diplomacy.