According to a report in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Thursday (December 14),GoogleThe “search generated experience”AIThe integration of (AI) tools into search functions highlights the risks media companies face in relying on the tech giant to get their stories to readers.
The report states thatNews organizations are already suffering from declining traffic to social media sites, with Facebook and Twitter both reducing news distribution. Google’s AI-driven search could make the situation worse, as nearly 401T of publishers’ traffic comes from Google.The report cited Similarweb data for analysis.
WSJ also cited a task force investigation by news magazine The Atlantic Monthly that found that about 40% of the magazine's web traffic came from Google searches.
The task force studied the consequences of Google's integration of AI into search and found that in 75% cases,AI-driven search would provide a complete answer to a user’s question, depriving The Atlantic of potential traffic.
“AI and large language models have the potential to destroy news and media brands as we know them,”said Mathias Dopfner, Chairman and CEO of Axel Springer.
His company, which owns Business Insider and Politico, announced on Wednesday (December 13) that it had reached a content licensing agreement with OpenAI.
“We want to explore opportunities in how AI can empower journalism — taking it to new levels of quality, social relevance, and business models,” Dopfer said in announcing the partnership.
According to WSJ,Google said its AI products are still under development, though publishers said they have seen enough to determine they will lose between 20% and 40% of Google-generated traffic.. Google said it was prioritizing sending traffic to publishers.
However, news publishers are not only concerned about AI’s impact on traffic. Earlier this year, a group of major news media organizations called for regulation of AI model operators regarding their use of copyrighted material.
Industry bodies like the News Media Alliance and the European Publishers Council are pushing for a framework that would allow them to “collectively negotiate” with AI model operators about the use of their intellectual property, according to a letter published in August.
“Generative AI and large language models … disseminate this content and information to their users, often without consideration, payment, or attribution to the original creators,” the letter said. “Such practices undermine the core business model of the media industry.”