Google Accused of Misusing Newspaper Content in AI Search Tool
Two Thousand Newspapers Demand Investigation
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Two Thousand Newspapers Demand Investigation
In May, Google announced a new feature called "AI Overviews" which uses AI to generate summaries of news articles and blog posts based on search queries. This has alarmed newspapers and news portals who fear readers will rely on these summaries instead of visiting their original content.
Increased Risk of News Content Theft
The News/Media Alliance, a group of two thousand newspapers, has sent a letter to the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission requesting an investigation into potential news content theft. Many media executives feel stuck between a rock and a hard place. They need to be listed in Google Search results because some media organizations receive more than half of their traffic from Google. However, staying on Google Search exposes their content to the risk of being scraped by AI Overviews.
Demanding Action to Prevent Content Misuse
The News/Media Alliance has demanded an investigation into Google and a halt to the release of AI Overviews. However, publishers say it's still too early to tell how much AI Overviews have impacted their traffic from Google.
Is AI Replacing Newspapers?
Last month, when Frank Paine searched for links to two news articles on Google, he was instead presented with two AI-generated paragraphs summarizing the topics. He had to scroll further down to find the information he was looking for. Paine is the executive editor of Media News Group and Tribune Publishing, which publishes 68 daily newspapers in the United States. This experience angered Paine. He believes it hinders access to the original content creators. The AI Overviews feature is seen as another step towards generative AI replacing newspapers. Readers and executives of other publications are worried about this change. Such summaries and paragraphs pose a significant threat to their business models and could lead to a decrease in website traffic from Google.
What's Next?
It remains to be seen what actions the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission will take against Google.
