Rolling Stone's owner, Penske, is suing Google over AI overviews

"The owner of Rolling Stone, Billboard and Variety sued Google on Friday, alleging the technology giant's AI summaries use its journalism without consent and reduce traffic to its websites. The lawsuit by Penske Media in federal court in Washington, D.C., marks the first time a major U.S. publisher has taken Alphabet-owned Google to court over the AI-generated summaries that now appear on top of its search results."

"News organizations have for months said the new features, including Google's "AI Overviews," siphon traffic away from their sites, eroding advertising and subscription revenue. Penske, a family-owned media conglomerate led by Jay Penske and whose content attracts 120 million online visitors a month, said Google only includes publishers' websites in its search results if it can also use their articles in AI summaries."

"Without the leverage, Google would have to pay publishers for the right to republish their work or use it to train its AI systems, the company said in the lawsuit. It added Google was able to impose such terms due to its search dominance, pointing to a federal court's finding last year that the tech giant held a near 90% share of the U.S. search market."

""We have a responsibility to proactively fight for the future of digital media and preserve its integrity - all of which is threatened by Google's current actions," Penske said."

Penske Media filed a federal lawsuit in Washington, D.C., alleging Google's AI summaries republish its journalism without consent and reduce traffic to its sites. The complaint alleges Google conditions inclusion in search results on permission to use publisher content in AI summaries and leverages its near-90% U.S. search share to impose those terms. Penske estimates AI Overviews now appear on about 20% of Google searches linking to its sites and reports affiliate revenue down more than a third from its peak by the end of 2024. Chegg has filed a similar suit, while Google maintains AI overviews improve user experience and send traffic broadly.

Read at Fast Company