Revamped Google AI Search criticised by publishers

Ads in AI summaries further reduce publishers' revenues as importance of SEO wanes

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Image: Bernd von Jutrczenka via dpa

The News/Media Alliance, which represents major publishers such as Condé Nast and Vox Media, has come down hard on Google for its new AI mode, calling it “theft”.

Google’s AI Mode replaces traditional search results with a chatbot-like interface that provides instant summaries. Publishers get less traffic and revenue as a result. During Google I/O, Google announced that AI Mode would be available to all US users directly in the search engine.

Danielle Coffey of News/Media Alliance said links were important for visitors and revenue.

Google is now using content without compensation. Internal documents show that Google does not ask publishers for permission to use their work in AI features. Publishers must opt out completely if they do not want their content to appear in AI modules. Liz Reid of Google Search said per-feature opt-out would be too technically complex.

AI Mode and AI Overviews are causing disquiet among publishers worldwide. These features summarise information, causing fewer people to click through to the original websites. Some publishers saw a 40% drop in unique visitors since the rollout. Experts estimate this could lead to billions of dollars in lost ad revenue. AI mode undermines traditional SEO by paraphrasing content and making it more conversational. Only content created specifically for summarisation still gets good visibility.

Publishers have complained about the lack of control over the use of their content in AI summaries. Google has rejected proposals to let publishers choose to participate or not. Google continues to show ads in AI listings even without users clicking through. This means additional revenue loss for publishers. As a result, frustration is growing among publishers about Google’s dominance in the online news market.

Business AM

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