In the AI arms race that has just broken out in the tech industry, Google, where much of the latest technology was invented, should be well positioned to be one of the big winners.There is just one problem: With politicians and regulators breathing down its neck, and a hugely profitable business model to defend, the internet search giant may be hesitant to wield many of the weapons at its disposal.

Microsoft threw down a direct challenge to the search giant this week when it sealed a multibillion-dollar investment in AI research company OpenAI. The move comes less than two months after the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, a chatbot that answers queries with paragraphs of text or code, suggesting how generative AI might one day replace internet search.

With preferential rights to commercialise OpenAI’s technology, Microsoft executives have made no secret of their goal of using it to challenge Google, reawakening an old rivalry that has simmered since Google won the search wars a decade ago.