AI search in Google resulted in a lawsuit against the company
15 September 12:15
Media conglomerate Penske Media, which owns such well-known publications as Rolling Stone, Billboard, and Variety, filed a lawsuit against Google on Friday in a US federal court in Washington, DC. The company accuses the tech giant of using its artificial intelligence-generated summaries to use journalistic materials without consent and reduce traffic to their websites. This was reported by "Komersant Ukrainian" with reference to Reuters.
This is the first time that a major US publisher has filed a lawsuit against Google over AI-generated summaries that now appear at the top of search results.
News organizations have been complaining for months that new features, including Google’s “AI reviews,” are driving traffic away from their sites, undermining advertising and subscription revenues. Now it’s the turn of Penske Media, a family-owned media conglomerate headed by Jay Penske, whose content is viewed by 120 million online visitors each month. The company says that Google includes publishers’ websites in search results only if it can also use their articles for AI resumes.
“We have a responsibility to actively fight for the future of digital media and preserve its integrity – all of which are at risk from Google’s current actions,”
– penske said.
According to the plaintiff, about 20% of Google searches leading to its sites now show AI reviews. This share is expected to grow. The company also reported that its affiliate revenue fell by more than a third from its peak by the end of 2024 due to a decline in search traffic.
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What Google says
In response to the lawsuit, Google said on Saturday that AI reviews offer users a better experience and drive traffic to a wider range of websites.
“Thanks to AI reviews, people find search more useful and use it more often, creating new opportunities for content discovery. We will defend ourselves against these baseless allegations,”
– said Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda.
The case unfolds against the backdrop of antitrust investigations against Google. Earlier this month, a judge ruled that the company would not have to sell its Chrome browser as part of efforts to open up competition in the search sector.
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