Penske Media Corporation, which publishes notable titles such as Rolling Stone and The Hollywood Reporter, has initiated legal action against Google, marking it as the first major American media firm to do so regarding Google’s AI-generated summaries. The lawsuit alleges that these AI Overviews, which frequently appear at the forefront of search results, reduce user incentive to click on original sources, thereby impacting site traffic negatively and benefiting Google at the expense of the company’s reporters and their work.
Penske Media is not the only organization taking a stand against Google regarding this issue. In February, the online education platform Chegg filed a lawsuit against Google, and a consortium of independent publishers in Europe has also expressed grievances. The News / Media Alliance has criticized the AI Overviews, labeling them as a form of “theft” and has urged the Department of Justice to take action.
In defense of its AI Overviews, Google spokesperson José Castañeda stated that these summaries enhance the search experience and promote user engagement. Nevertheless, Penske Media and other publishers argue that the AI features lead to a marked decrease in traffic and revenue. Penske’s lawsuit claims that its earnings from affiliate links have dropped by more than one-third this year, attributing this decline directly to reduced traffic from Google search results.
Penske Media also outlines a challenging dilemma. The company faces the prospect of either preventing Google from indexing its content, which would exclude it from search results entirely, or continuing to provide content that feeds Google’s AI training, which could jeopardize its business model.
Source: https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/777788/rolling-stone-penske-media-sue-google-ai-overviews