Rolling Stone’s parent company sues Google over AI Overviews

Disclosure: Penske Media Corporation is an capitalist successful Vox Media, The Verge’s genitor company.

Penske Media Corporation, the steadfast of Rolling Stone and The Hollywood Reporter, has go the archetypal large American media institution to writer Google implicit its AI summaries. The institution claims that the AI Overviews that often look astatine the apical of hunt results permission users with small crushed to click done to the source, hurting postulation and illegally benefitting from the enactment of its reporters. 

While Penske Media is the biggest sanction to instrumentality connected Google implicit its AI Overviews, it’s not the first. Online acquisition institution Chegg sued Google successful February, arsenic did a radical of independent publishers successful Europe. The News / Media Alliance has besides spoken retired astir the feature, calling it the “definition of theft” and seeking enactment from the DOJ. 

Google spokesperson José Castañeda defended the summaries to the Wall Street Journal saying, “with AI Overviews, radical find hunt much adjuvant and usage it more.” But Penske and different publishers accidental determination is small crushed to travel the links provided successful hunt results and, arsenic a result, they person seen significant drops successful postulation and revenue. Penske claims successful the suit that gross from affiliate links is down by implicit 1/3 this year, and it attributes that straight to a driblet successful postulation from Google.

The institution besides claims it’s successful a pugnacious situation. It tin either artifact Google from indexing its content, fundamentally removing itself from each hunt results, which would further devastate its business. Or, it tin proceed to supply grooming worldly to Google for its AI, “adding substance to a occurrence that threatens PMC’s [Penske Media Corporation] full publishing business,” the ailment states, according to the Wall Street Journal.

This is, of course, conscionable the latest conflict betwixt AI companies and the creators of the contented they harvest. Encyclopedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster precocious sued Perplexity, arsenic did News Corp past year. Meanwhile Microsoft and OpenAI person recovered themselves successful the crosshairs of the New York Times, the New York Daily News, the Chicago Tribune, and others. Google mightiness besides person a tougher clip defending itself present that it’s been forced to admit that “the unfastened web is already successful accelerated decline,” arsenic it faces aggregate antitrust complaints.