A major trade organization representing leading news publishers in the United States has criticized Google’s newly enhanced AI Mode, which replaces standard search results with a chatbot-like interface. In a statement released on Wednesday, the News/Media Alliance argued that this feature is undermining publishers’ ability to attract traffic and generate revenue.
At the Google I/O event on Tuesday, the tech giant unveiled its plan to roll out AI Mode to all U.S. users. This new feature appears in a dedicated tab within the Search platform and provides an AI-generated answer in response to user queries, alongside a collection of pertinent links.
“Links were the final element of search that offered publishers traffic and revenue,” stated Danielle Coffey, the CEO and president of News/Media Alliance. “Now, Google is forcibly taking content and utilizing it without any compensation, which amounts to theft. The remedies proposed by the Department of Justice must address this issue to curtail one company’s overwhelming dominance on the internet.”
An internal document released during Google’s antitrust trial revealed the company’s decision not to seek permission from publishers for including their content in its AI search features, as reported by Bloomberg. Publishers are left with the option to either have their work included in AI functionalities or to completely opt out of search results.
Liz Reid, head of Google Search, testified that allowing publishers to selectively opt out of certain features would complicate the process significantly. “If a publisher wanted to participate in one feature but not another, it simply wouldn’t be feasible,” Reid explained. “Essentially, it would require us to establish unique models for every feature on the page.”
