Google AI Overviews face antitrust complaint from EU publishers

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Google is in hot water in Europe because of its new AI Overviews feature. 

A group called the Independent Publishers Alliance has filed a formal complaint with the European Commission, accusing Google of breaking antitrust laws. 

Their main issue is that Google’s AI Overviews, the summaries that appear at the top of search results, use content from news and other websites without permission, and this practice is hurting publishers badly.

According to the complaint, publishers have seen big drops in visitors to their websites, leading to fewer readers and less advertising revenue. 

The publishers argue that people are getting the information they need directly from Google’s AI-generated summaries, so they don’t click through to the original websites anymore. 

This is a huge problem for news outlets that rely on web traffic to make money. 

Another major concern is that publishers don’t really have a choice. 

If they don’t want their content to be used in Google’s AI Overviews, the only option is to remove themselves entirely from Google Search, which would make it almost impossible for people to find them online. 

So, they feel forced to let Google use their work, even though it hurts them financially.

Google started rolling out AI Overviews a little over a year ago, and even though some early answers were wildly inaccurate or even embarrassing, the feature has kept expanding. 

Reports now suggest it’s a big reason why some news sites are seeing steep declines in traffic.

In response to the complaint, Google told Reuters that its AI Overviews actually help people ask more questions, which can give websites and businesses new opportunities to get discovered. 

Google also said that claims about web traffic losses are often based on incomplete information, and that website traffic naturally goes up and down for many reasons beyond AI summaries.

What do you think about Google’s AI features in search? Do you think these features should be regulated? Tell us below in the comments, or via our Twitter or Facebook.