May 23, 2011 - Technology media outlet The Verge published a blog post yesterday (May 22) reporting that the News / Media Alliance (News / Media Alliance) slammed Google's AI Mode,argues that this move deprivespublishertraffic and revenue, calling it "theft".
At the I/O developer conference on Tuesday, Google announced the rollout of AI Mode to all users in the U.S. The feature is embedded directly into a new tab on the search page, where users enter a query and the system generates an AI response with a relevant link.
The News / Media Alliance issued a statement Wednesday slamming the feature, 1AI quoted in a blog post. Pointing out that links are the only element of search that drive traffic and revenue for publishers, theyAnd AI Mode takes content directly without giving anything back.Danielle Coffey, chief executive of the Alliance, denounced the move as "theft" and emphasized that Google's actions were seriously damaging to publishers. Danielle Coffey, CEO of the Alliance, denounced the move as "theft" and emphasized that Google's actions seriously harmed publishers.
Also according to internal documents disclosed this week by Bloomberg (Google Search(part of a monopoly antitrust trial), revealing that Google explicitly decided to incorporate its content into the AI search function without seeking permission from publishers. Instead, if publishers did not want their content to be used by AI, their only option was to opt out of Google search results altogether.
Google's head of search, Liz Reid, argued in her testimony that allowing publishers to opt out on a feature-by-feature basis would introduce "significant complexity." She said it would not work effectively if each page feature required a separate model.
In a move that further fueled publisher discontent, the News/Media Alliance called on the Justice Department to take strong measures to stop Google from continuing to dominate the Internet ecosystem.