EU regulators have told Google to open Android so a phone maker or a user can set a competing assistant as the default in place of Gemini. It arrives in the same week Gemini reportedly slipped again on a closely watched benchmark.
Defaults are the whole game on mobile. Whoever sits behind the home button gets the queries, and the queries train the model. Forcing that slot open is the most direct lever a regulator has pulled on AI so far.
Why it matters: If users can swap the default assistant as easily as a browser, the advantage of simply shipping the phone shrinks, and the AI race on mobile gets a lot more open.