President Biden signed an executive order to create artificial intelligence safeguards that could affect Google’s most pressing projects, and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken gave the company an award for its work in aiding Ukrainian refugees and promoting women’s economic security. On Tuesday, Mr. Pichai is expected to testify again, this time in San Francisco, to confront claims brought by the video game company Epic Games that his company broke the law, wielding monopolistic power over app developers on Android’s Google Play Store. The main duty on the witness stand for Mr. Pichai has been to keep the temperature low under questioning and keep to the central point of Google’s antitrust defense: that it is an innovative company that has maintained its leadership through innovation and hard work instead of illegal monopolistic behavior. Another Justice Department antitrust lawsuit accuses it of illegally abusing its monopoly power over the technology that delivers ads. A trial in that case could begin as soon as next year, but it is too early to know whether Mr. Pichai will be called to testify. Mr. Pichai has encouraged them to “keep doing what you’re doing” and has allocated a relatively small number of employees to work on the Justice Department case.
