First off, the judge presiding over the Google Anti-trust trial is named Mehta. And that is just perfect.
Anyway…
While Cavanaugh delivered his opening statement, Mehta even appeared briefly confused by some of the references to today's tech, unable to keep straight if Mozilla was a browser or a search engine. He also appeared unclear about how SEM works and struggled to understand the options for Microsoft to promote Bing ads outside of Google's SEM tools.
I don’t mean to take the piss out of Judge Mehta. He will rule based on the merits of the case as he is supposed to. But it brings up the question about tech regulation in general:
How well are we equipped to regulate tech?
Everyone agrees that there needs to be some regulation when it comes to advanced tech. Even the totally-not-a-psychopath CEO of Open AI, Sam Altman, urged congress to regulate them.
But do we think that our policymakers who move at break-hip speed can fully understand and make policy around technology that advances at break-neck speed?
And for our judicial system… Judge Mehta was busy on that seditious conspiracy case until the end of May… while Google’s lawyers have had 20 months to prep for this trial.
Seems like there is an imbalance.