Why has Google's ‘AI overviews' sparked an antitrust firestorm in the EU?

The Hindu

6 hours ago

The story so far:
Google's AI-powered summaries, known as AI Overviews, are facing a formal antitrust complaint from a coalition of independent publishers in the European Union, as per a report by Reuters. Their complaint, lodged with the European Commission, alleges that Alphabet's Google is abusing its market dominance, siphoning traffic and revenue from publishers, and threatening the viability of independent journalism. The feature, rolled out in over 100 countries, represents Google's major strategic bet on integrating generative AI directly into its core search experience. However, this move has ignited fierce opposition from content creators who claim it undermines the very ecosystem that Google's search engine relies on.
What is Google AI Overviews?
AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of Google's search results page, positioned above the traditional list of blue links. Their purpose is to provide users with a quick, synthesised answer to their query, drawing information from multiple web sources. These overviews can range from a few paragraphs to lists or tables and often include links to the source websites within the generated text.
First introduced as an experiment called Search Generative Experience (SGE) in May 2023, the feature is now a core part of Google Search in many regions.
How do AI Overviews work?
When a user enters a search query, Google's systems determine if generative AI could be particularly helpful in providing a comprehensive answer. If so, it employs a customised version of its advanced AI model, Gemini, to process the request.
The system doesn't rely solely on the AI's pre-existing knowledge. Instead, it uses a technique called Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), where it actively fetches and analyses relevant information from its web index. The AI then synthesises this information into a coherent summary. Google states that these overviews are designed to be backed up by top web results, and include links to allow users to 'dig deeper.'
Why are publishers accusing Google?
The crux of the dispute lies in how these AI-generated answers impact the businesses that create the original content. The Independent Publishers Alliance, alongside groups like the Movement for an Open Web and the legal advocacy non-profit Foxglove, argues that this new feature hurts competition and is causing 'serious irreparable harm,' as per the Reuters report citing documents it has seen.
The publishers' key complaints stem from the concern that their content will be disincentivised because of Google's AI feature. By providing a direct summary at the top of the page, users have less incentive to click through to their websites.
This leads to a significant drop in traffic, which in turn slashes advertising revenue and subscriber numbers, the lifeblood of many online publications.
Their complaint alleges that Google is 'misusing web content' by scraping information from publisher sites to train its AI models and generate summaries without fair compensation. Since May 2024, Google has also begun placing ads within these AI Overviews, meaning it is directly monetising content that publishers have invested in creating.
The complaint highlights that there is no way to opt out of having their content used for AI Overviews without also being removed from Google's main search results. Given Google's dominance in search, becoming invisible on the platform is not a feasible option for any publisher.
How are regulators getting involved?
The formal complaint, per the report, was filed with both the European Commission and the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The publishers are asking for 'interim measures' to stop Google from using the feature while the case is investigated, to prevent further damage.
While the European Commission has not commented publicly on the complaint, it has previously investigated Google for other anticompetitive practices.
The U.K.'s CMA has confirmed receipt of the complaint and noted that AI Overviews fall within the scope of its ongoing work to designate Google with a 'strategic market status.'
This designation would grant the CMA more power to regulate Google's conduct, potentially including rules that give publishers more control over how their content is used in AI summaries without having to be de-listed from search entirely.
How is Google defending AI Overviews?
Google has pushed back against the publishers' claims. A company spokesperson stated that 'New AI experiences in Search enable people to ask even more questions, which creates new opportunities for content and businesses to be discovered.'
The company maintains that it sends billions of clicks to websites every day and that traffic fluctuations can be due to many factors, such as seasonal interest and regular algorithm updates. Google also claims that clicks from pages with AI Overviews are of 'higher quality,' meaning users are more likely to stay on the sites they visit.