09:58Machine-translated from Azerbaijani by AIRead in Azerbaijani
2 Antitrust Lawsuits Against Google’s AI Summaries Dismissed
Federal Judge Amit Mehta on Wednesday dismissed 2 antitrust lawsuits against Google over the company’s artificial intelligence (AI)-powered search features. The lawsuits were filed by Penske Media Corporation and education technology company Chegg. They argued that “AI Overviews,” which displays AI-generated summaries in search results, republishes websites’ content and reduces their readership and revenue. The court concluded that these arguments did not prove a violation of antitrust laws.
The lawsuits filed last year alleged that Google was abusing its dominant position in the search market. Chegg and Penske Media Corporation, the owner of Rolling Stone magazine, claimed that the company was forcing publishers to provide their content for “AI Overviews” free of charge. In their view, websites that refused could be removed from search results. The companies said the decline in reader traffic was also hurting revenue from online advertising. According to Amit Mehta, the plaintiffs failed to prove that Google had used its monopoly power to collect free material or gain an unfair advantage in digital publishing. The judge believes that websites’ expectation of receiving readers from search in exchange for free content does not constitute a formal agreement. Mehta is the judge who ruled in 2024 that Google had maintained a monopoly in online search services. Although the court acknowledged the difficulties publishers face, it said lawmakers should decide how to address the economic impact of the new technology. Nevertheless, AI-powered search has been observed to significantly reduce reader traffic to news sites and smaller websites. Publishers can opt their pages out of the “AI Overviews” system. Those pages continue to appear in traditional search results. However, as “AI Mode” and “AI Overviews” take up more space on the results page, this option does not restore previous readership levels. According to information released this week, Google is paying about 100 publishers that provide material for “AI Overviews,” “AI Mode,” and “Gemini” as part of a pilot program.
The lawsuits filed last year alleged that Google was abusing its dominant position in the search market. Chegg and Penske Media Corporation, the owner of Rolling Stone magazine, claimed that the company was forcing publishers to provide their content for “AI Overviews” free of charge. In their view, websites that refused could be removed from search results. The companies said the decline in reader traffic was also hurting revenue from online advertising. According to Amit Mehta, the plaintiffs failed to prove that Google had used its monopoly power to collect free material or gain an unfair advantage in digital publishing. The judge believes that websites’ expectation of receiving readers from search in exchange for free content does not constitute a formal agreement. Mehta is the judge who ruled in 2024 that Google had maintained a monopoly in online search services. Although the court acknowledged the difficulties publishers face, it said lawmakers should decide how to address the economic impact of the new technology. Nevertheless, AI-powered search has been observed to significantly reduce reader traffic to news sites and smaller websites. Publishers can opt their pages out of the “AI Overviews” system. Those pages continue to appear in traditional search results. However, as “AI Mode” and “AI Overviews” take up more space on the results page, this option does not restore previous readership levels. According to information released this week, Google is paying about 100 publishers that provide material for “AI Overviews,” “AI Mode,” and “Gemini” as part of a pilot program.