The News/Media Alliance criticized Google's new AI Mode for replacing traditional search results with a chatbot-like interface, claiming it harms publishers' traffic and revenue. The feature, launched at Google I/O, displays AI-generated responses alongside relevant links, undermining the previous traffic-generating links for publishers. Danielle Coffey, CEO of News/Media Alliance, condemned the action as theft. Additionally, Google opted not to ask for publishers' permission to use their content in AI searches during ongoing antitrust trials, further complicating the relationship between Google and content creators.
"Links were the last redeeming quality of search that gave publishers traffic and revenue," Danielle Coffey, the CEO and president of News/Media Alliance, said in the statement. "Now Google just takes content by force and uses it with no return, the definition of theft. The DOJ remedies must address this to prevent continued domination of the internet by one company."
During Google I/O on Tuesday, the company announced that it's expanding AI Mode to all users in the US, which appears in a new tab directly within Search. When users enter a query, AI Mode serves up an AI-generated response alongside a list of relevant links.
This week, an internal document disclosed as part of Google's antitrust trial over its search dominance showed that the company decided against asking publishers for permission to have their work included in its AI search features.
Google Search head Liz Reid said during her testimony that allowing publishers to opt out of individual features would add 'enormous complexity.' According to Bloomberg, she stated, 'By saying a publisher could be like, 'I want to be in this feature but not that feature,' it doesn't work.'
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