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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
Rolling Stone, Billboard owner Penske sues Google over AI overviews | |
By Reuters | |
Updated: | |
12:59 AM EDT, Sun September 14, 2025 | |
Source: Reuters | |
The owner of Rolling Stone, Billboard and Variety sued Google on | |
Friday, alleging the technology giant’s AI summaries use its | |
journalism without consent and reduce traffic to its websites. | |
The lawsuit by Penske Media in federal court in Washington, DC, marks | |
the first time a major US publisher has taken Alphabet-owned Google to | |
court over the AI-generated summaries that now appear on top of its | |
search results. | |
News organizations have for months said the new features, including | |
Google’s “AI Overviews,” siphon traffic away from their sites, | |
eroding advertising and subscription revenue. | |
Penske, a family-owned media conglomerate led by Jay Penske and whose | |
content attracts 120 million online visitors a month, said Google only | |
includes publishers’ websites in its search results if it can also | |
use their articles in AI summaries. | |
Without the leverage, Google would have to pay publishers for the right | |
to republish their work or use it to train its AI systems, the company | |
said in the lawsuit. It added Google was able to impose such terms due | |
to its search dominance, pointing to a federal court’s finding last | |
year that the tech giant held a near 90% share of the US search | |
market. | |
“We have a responsibility to proactively fight for the future of | |
digital media and preserve its integrity – all of which is | |
threatened by Google’s current actions,” Penske said. | |
It alleged that about 20% of Google searches that link to its sites | |
now show AI Overviews, a share it expects to rise, and added that its | |
affiliate revenue has fallen by more than a third from its peak by the | |
end of 2024 as search traffic declined. | |
Online education company Chegg also sued Google in February, alleging | |
that the search giant’s AI-generated overviews were eroding demand | |
for original content and undermining publishers’ ability to compete. | |
Responding to Penske’s lawsuit, Google said on Saturday that AI | |
overviews offer a better experience to users and send traffic to a | |
wider variety of websites. | |
“With AI Overviews, people find Search more helpful and use it more, | |
creating new opportunities for content to be discovered. We will defend | |
against these meritless claims.” Google Spokesperson Jose Castaneda | |
said. | |
A judge handed the company a earlier this month by ruling that it will | |
not have to sell its Chrome browser as part of efforts to open up | |
competition in search. | |
The move disappointed some publishers and industry bodies, including | |
the News/Media Alliance which has said the decision left publishers | |
without the ability to opt out of AI overviews. | |
“All of the elements being negotiated with every other AI company | |
doesn’t apply to Google because they have the market power to not | |
engage in those healthy practices,” Danielle Coffey, CEO of the | |
News/Media Alliance, a trade group representing more than 2,200 | |
US-based publishers, told Reuters on Friday. | |
“When you have the massive scale and market power that Google has, | |
you are not obligated to abide by the same norms. That is the | |
problem.” | |
Coffey was referring to AI licensing deals firms such as ChatGPT-maker | |
OpenAI have been signing with the likes of News Corp, Financial Times | |
and The Atlantic. Google, whose Gemini chatbot competes with ChatGPT, | |
has been slower to sign such deals. | |
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