TL;DR
- Regulatory Push: OpenAI filed a submission urging the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority to include ChatGPT on legally mandated search choice screens for Android and Chrome.
- Market Context: ChatGPT has reached 900 million weekly users and doubled its search market share to 12 percent in six months, according to OpenAI.
- Google’s Response: Google pushed back against choice screens, proposing a permanent settings switch instead of recurring pop-up prompts.
- Global Implications: A favorable CMA ruling could set a precedent for classifying AI chatbots as search alternatives in regulatory frameworks worldwide.
When millions of UK consumers next set up an Android phone or open Google Chrome, they may face an unfamiliar choice: ChatGPT or Google as their default search engine. OpenAI filed a submission on March 6 urging the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority to include its AI chatbot on legally mandated search choice screens, arguing that AI-powered services with search functionality should qualify as search engines on Android devices and Chrome. A favorable ruling could redefine how competition authorities worldwide classify AI chatbots.
How the CMA’s Proposed Choice Screens Could Reshape Search
OpenAI’s filing represents its clearest attempt yet to position ChatGPT as a search competitor through regulatory channels. OpenAI announced that ChatGPT reached 900 million weekly users, a jump of 100 million from the 800 million reported in October 2025. Its CFO has said AI is “blowing open the search markets,” noting that ChatGPT doubled its search share from roughly 6 percent to 12 percent in six months.
In October 2025, the CMA designated Google with strategic market status in search services under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024. That designation activated new regulatory powers, leading the authority to propose conduct requirements in a January 2026 consultation.
Moreover, four measures were outlined: publisher controls for AI features, fair ranking standards, mandatory choice screens on Android and Chrome, and data portability options. According to the CMA, Google Search handles more than 90% of UK search queries, and more than 200,000 UK firms spent over £10 billion on Google search advertising last year.
Sarah Cardell, the CMA’s chief executive, said the proposed measures would give UK businesses and consumers more choice and control over how they interact with Google’s search services, while unlocking opportunities for innovation across the UK tech sector. Her framing of the proposals as tools for expanding competition aligns with OpenAI’s argument that AI chatbots belong on choice screens alongside traditional search engines.
Under the proposed rules, choice screens would appear on Android phones and within Chrome, presenting users with alternatives to Google as their default search provider. OpenAI argued that ChatGPT and similar AI-powered services should be eligible for inclusion, given that users increasingly turn to chatbots for the same types of queries they once directed at search engines. ChatGPT has offered web search since 2024, strengthening OpenAI’s case that its product functions as a search tool rather than a standalone chatbot.
Meanwhile, a consultation deadline closed on February 25, 2026, with OpenAI, Google, Brave Software, and other industry participants filing responses. All submissions were posted publicly on the CMA’s consultation portal. OpenAI emphasized in its filing that services like ChatGPT should be eligible as default search providers on Android devices and Chrome, directly challenging the assumption that only traditional search engines qualify for inclusion on choice screens.
Taken together, OpenAI’s submission amounts to a request for the CMA to expand the definition of what counts as a search engine at the very moment when AI chatbots are eroding the boundary between conversational AI and web search. If regulators accept this reframing, it would position ChatGPT not merely as a new entrant but as a product that already competes for the same user intent Google has dominated for two decades.
Google Pushes Back Against Choice Screens
However, Google has pushed back against the choice screen proposal with an alternative approach. Rather than pop-up prompts, Google proposed a “permanent, central switch” in device settings that would let users change their default search engine at any time without recurring interruptions.
“We know that people don’t like being bombarded with frequent, interruptive pop-ups, and that the proposal that we show more choice screens every year, on top of when you set up a new device, would annoy users.”
Beyond opposing choice screens, Google is working on controls to let publishers specifically opt out of generative AI features in Search, though it offered no firm schedule for implementation. Its response to the CMA lacked details and timelines for any of the proposed changes, drawing scrutiny from observers who noted the contrast between Google’s vague commitments and OpenAI’s specific requests.
Google’s search revenues climbed 16 percent last year, and its own AI system Gemini is growing rapidly in direct competition with ChatGPT.
Furthermore, regulators are scrutinizing Google’s search dominance on multiple fronts. In the US, a federal judge ordered Google to halt exclusive search contracts and share some search data with qualified competitors. Court filings revealed Google pays Apple billions of dollars annually to remain the default search engine on iPhones, a practice now under judicial review.
In contrast, both companies’ regulatory strategies reveal sharply different calculations. Google proposes minimal concessions in both jurisdictions, while OpenAI is actively leveraging the regulatory process to secure distribution advantages that would be difficult to achieve through market competition alone. OpenAI stands to benefit regardless of whether the CMA ultimately adopts choice screens in their proposed form, because the filing itself establishes AI chatbots as legitimate search competitors in the regulatory record.
What Comes Next
With the CMA reviewing submissions through March, a final decision on conduct requirements is expected shortly after. If the authority accepts OpenAI’s argument, it would set a precedent for classifying AI chatbots as search alternatives in regulatory frameworks globally. Such a ruling would open the door for other AI companies to seek similar treatment, accelerating the reclassification of conversational AI products as search engines.
However, whether choice screens would meaningfully shift the market remains an open question, particularly given evidence from similar interventions in Europe. According to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, EU choice screens had virtually no effect on Google’s search market share because users consistently chose Google when presented with alternatives.
“I think that the core remaining problem of Choice Screen remains that they are shown at a time [when] the user simply does not have the right information to make an informed choice or the user is trying to achieve something and are presented with a difficult choice.”
Brave Software, CMA consultation submission (via MediaPost)
Despite that skepticism, ChatGPT’s rapid growth complicates the picture. According to TechCrunch, OpenAI reported that ChatGPT reached 900 million weekly users by February 2026, up from 800 million announced in October 2025, suggesting AI-powered search is gaining traction with or without regulatory intervention.
Building on this momentum, OpenAI has separately disclosed 50 million paying subscribers and $110 billion in funding at a $730 billion valuation, giving it substantial resources to compete with Google in search. A company blog post noted that January and February 2026 were on track to be the largest months for new subscriber additions in OpenAI’s history.
What distinguishes ChatGPT from earlier Google challengers is that it offers a fundamentally different way to find information, not just a different list of links. If choice screens include AI chatbots, they could prove far more effective at shifting user behavior than they were in the EU, where all the alternatives were variations on the same model.
For UK consumers who encounter ChatGPT on a choice screen, asking a question and receiving a conversational answer may prove more compelling than selecting yet another search engine. Should the CMA rule in OpenAI’s favor, competition authorities from Brussels to Washington will face pressure to follow suit, potentially reshaping the global search market within months rather than years.
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