At an AI summit in New York on Monday, a senior Google executive addressed the company’s implementation of AI-generated summaries in search results.
During the event, Markham Erickson, Google’s vice president for government affairs and public policy, responded to concerns regarding a lawsuit filed by Penske Media Corporation, the parent company of Rolling Stone. He noted a shift in user preferences, indicating that people are increasingly favoring the contextual summaries provided by AI over traditional “factual answers” from original sources. These AI Overviews are prominently displayed at the top of search results. Erickson emphasized Google’s commitment to fostering a balanced environment that includes both AI summaries and traditional search links, often referred to as the “10 blue links.”
Recent data indicates a marked decrease in search traffic correlated with the use of AI summaries, a trend that Penske cites in its lawsuit. This decline in traffic is posited to negatively impact the revenue of online publishers.
In his comments on the lawsuit, Erickson stated:
I won’t discuss the specifics of the lawsuit, but I can outline our philosophy: we aim for a healthy ecosystem. The original 10 blue links significantly contribute to that ecosystem, allowing us to direct users to billions of publications around the globe at no cost. We’re not abandoning this model, as it remains vital.
However, we also recognize that user preferences are evolving. Increasingly, users seek contextual answers and summaries instead of just factual data. We aspire to provide both while also guiding users back to valuable content on the web. This landscape is dynamic, and our ultimate goal is to ensure a thriving ecosystem.
