October 20, 2023

Google’s new search tool, Search Generative Experience (SGE), powered by generative AI, which creates new content drawing from past data has raised concerns from publishers.

The SGE uses AI to create summaries in response to some search queries, triggered by whether Google’s system determines the format would be helpful. Those summaries appear on the top of the Google search homepage, with links to “dig deeper,” according to Google’s overview of SGE.

The new search tool has raised concerns among publishers, who worry that it could reduce traffic to their websites and ultimately threaten their businesses. One concern is that the AI-generated summaries will be so comprehensive and informative that users will no longer need to click on the links to the original sources. This could lead to a significant decrease in traffic for publishers, who rely on clicks to generate advertising revenue.

Another concern is that the AI-generated summaries may not be accurate or complete. This could damage the reputation of publishers, whose content is being used to generate the summaries.

Publishers also want to be compensated for the content that Google is using to train its AI models. However, Google has not yet announced any plans to compensate publishers for this use.

Google has said that it is committed to sending valuable traffic to a wide range of creators, including news publishers. The company has also said that it is working to develop a better understanding of the business model of generative AI applications and to get input from publishers and others.

Google has also released a new tool, called Google-Extended, that gives publishers the option to block their content from being used by Google to train its AI models. However, this tool does not allow publishers to block their content from being used for SGE.

The sources for this piece include an article in Reuters.