Recently, the Independent Publishers' Alliance submitted an antitrust complaint to the European Commission, targeting Google's AI summary feature in its search engine. According to Reuters, the complaint accuses Google of "abusing online content," causing significant losses to publishers, especially news publishers, including declines in traffic, readership, and revenue.
Since last year, when Google added AI-generated summaries at the top of search results, the expansion of this feature seems to have failed to be as well-received as expected. Although Google claims that these AI summaries can help users ask better questions, thereby creating new content and business opportunities, publishers have expressed strong dissatisfaction. They believe that unless they are willing to completely exit Google's search results, they have no choice but to accept their content being used for AI summaries.
In the complaint, publishers emphasized that Google's practices not only weaken their online presence but also directly affect their revenue models. Google's response was relatively dismissive, pointing out that allegations regarding web traffic are often based on incomplete data and stating that fluctuations in website traffic can be caused by various factors, not just the presence of AI summaries.
This incident has once again raised public attention on how big tech companies use content and data. It remains unknown whether Google will make changes under pressure or continue to advance its AI features. Regardless, the battle between AI technology and the traditional publishing industry is destined to continue generating discussions in the coming months.