Google's AI push raises concerns for content publishers

Back in May, Google began rolling out a new form of search powered by generative AI. The product, called Search Generative Experience (SGE), uses AI to generate summaries for certain search queries. These appear at the top of Google’s search homepage, with links to “dig deeper.” Google says the AI-generated information is aggregated from a variety of websites and links.

Many publishers are concerned as Google pushes AI applications

SGE is currently available in the United States, India and Japan, according to Reuters. The product is still in development but raises concerns for content publishers as they try to figure out their place in a world where AI could dominate how users find and pay for information.

Accordingly, the new tool raises concerns regarding website traffic. Whether publishers are recognized as the source of information appearing in SGE summaries and whether their accuracy is guaranteed.

Notably, publishers want to be paid for the content that Google and other AI companies use to train their AI tools. In response, Google said it is working to create better understanding of the business model for generative AI applications and to solicit input, including from publishers.

In late September, Google announced a new tool called Google-Extended, which gives publishers the option to block Google from using their content to train AI models. For SGE, however, implementing the block means the original content disappears from Google's traditional search results.

According to one publisher executive, the SGE design pushed links that appeared in traditional search down, potentially reducing traffic to those links by as much as 40%.

More alarming is the likelihood that web surfers will avoid clicking on any links if the SGE summary satisfies their information needs. For example, users are satisfied with the summary on Google when searching for the best time of year to visit Paris, so they are reluctant to click on a link to a website to learn more.

Publishers' concerns about SGE boil down to one key point: Google is crawling their content for free to create summaries that users can read instead of clicking on a link to their site. They also say Google has been unclear about how it can block Google from crawling content for SGE.

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