Innovation or Infringement: Penske Media Corporation Takes Google to Court
A groundbreaking lawsuit has emerged in the media-scape as Penske Media Corporation, the publisher of household names such as Rolling Stone and The Hollywood Reporter, has taken an unprecedented step in challenging tech giant Google over its AI summaries. Penske Media Corporation has accused Google’s AI Overviews, which appear atop the search results, of illegally profiting from its reporters’ work by dissuading users from clicking through to the original source. This has reportedly led to a drastic dip in traffic and a consequent blow to revenue.
Penske Media is not the only organization miffed with Google’s AI Overviews. Earlier in February, online education company Chegg sued Google on similar grounds. Even on the other side of the pond, a consortium of independent publishers in Europe joined the legal melee. Media stalwarts under the News / Media Alliance umbrella have likewise voiced significant concern about the feature, calling it “the definition of theft” and urging the Department of Justice to act.
Google, on the contrary, staunchly defends its AI Overviews. Google spokesperson José Castañeda claimed to the Wall Street Journal that “with AI Overviews, people find search more helpful and use it more.” Yet, Penske and its media cohorts maintain that the links sourced in search results are increasingly ignored. Penske even alleges that the decline in revenue from affiliate links this year, by over a third, is directly attributable to the drop in traffic from Google.
The Dilemma of Deal or no Deal
Penske Media Corporation has found itself caught between a rock and a hard place. The corporation has the option of blocking Google from indexing its content. Doing so would, however, essentially remove their presence from all search results, setting the stage for an even more severe blow to their business. The alternative is no less worrying. Continuing to supply training material for Google’s AI might be akin to “adding fuel to a fire that threatens PMC’s [Penske Media Corporation] entire publishing business,” as the complaint read, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
This legal tussle is the latest in a stream of disputes between AI companies and original content creators. The likes of Encyclopedia Britannica, Merriam-Webster, and News Corp have all taken Perplexity to court, while Microsoft and OpenAI have incurred the wrath of the New York Times, the New York Daily News, the Chicago Tribune, and more. Google’s defense could be compromised as it recently admitted that “the open web is already in rapid decline,” while facing a tirade of antitrust complaints.
As this trend of conflict between AI and original content producers persists, the media landscape appears to be at a pivotal juncture. Only time will reveal how these battles will influence the way we search for, and gain access to, information online. Whichever way the pendulum swings, it’s bound to have significant implications on how AI interfaces with the realm of media publishing.
Original article: https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/777788/rolling-stone-penske-media-sue-google-ai-overviews
