Penske, the owner of a billboard, is suing Google over AI overviews in Rolling Stone
Google was sued on Friday by the owners of Rolling Stone, Billboard, and Variety, who claimed that the tech giant’s AI summaries utilize their journalism without permission and lower website traffic.
Penske Media’s case in federal court in Washington, D.C., opens a new chapter for the first time a major U.S. publisher has taken Alphabet-owned (GOOGL.O). The AI-generated summaries that currently top its search results are being challenged by Google.
News outlets have been complaining for months that the new features, such as Google’s “AI Overviews,” divert users from their websites and reduce advertising and subscription income.
According to Penske, a family-run media company run by Jay Penske and whose work has 120 million monthly online visitors, Google only displays publishers’ websites in its search results if it is able to utilize their material in AI summaries.
In the complaint, Google said that without the leverage, it would have to compensate publishers for the right to republish their work or use it to train its artificial intelligence (AI) systems. It further stated that Google’s search dominance allowed it to enforce these rules, citing a federal court’s conclusion from the previous year that the internet giant controlled nearly 90% of the US search industry.
“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,” added Penske.
It also claimed that as search traffic decreased, its affiliate revenue had dropped by more than a third from its peak by the end of 2024, and that roughly 20% of Google searches that lead to its websites now display AI Overviews, a percentage it anticipates increasing.
In February, the online learning startup Chegg (CHGG.N), which launches a new tab, filed a lawsuit against Google, claiming that the search engine giant’s AI-generated summaries were decreasing the market for original content and making it harder for publishers to compete.
In response to Penske’s lawsuit, Google stated on Saturday that AI overviews improve user experience and drive visitors to more diverse websites.
“With AI Overviews, individuals use Search more frequently and find it more helpful, which opens up new avenues for content discovery. We will fight these baseless accusations. According to Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda.
Earlier this month, the business earned a rare antitrust victory when a judge decided that it would not be required to sell its Chrome browser as part of an effort to increase search engine competition.
The decision left publishers without the option to opt out of AI overviews, according to the News/Media Alliance, which was among the industry groups and publishers who expressed disappointment.
“Google has the market power to not engage in those healthy practices, so all of the elements being negotiated with every other AI company don’t apply to them,” Danielle Coffey, CEO of the News/Media Alliance, a trade group that represents over 2,200 U.S.-based publishers, told Reuters on Friday.
Having Google’s scale and market dominance does not mean that you have to follow the same rules. That is the issue.
In reference to AI license agreements, Coffey mentioned that companies like OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, have been negotiating with publications including News Corp, Financial Times, and The Atlantic. Such agreements have been more slowly signed by Google, whose Gemini chatbot rivals ChatGPT.
