Feed: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
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Title: News/Media Alliance calls Google's AI Mode 'theft'

Date: Wed, 21 May 2025 22:31:28 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/newsmedia-a...

The News/Media Alliance took aim at Google today after the tech company's
announcement at its I/O showcase that AI Mode will be rolling out to all US
search users. This feature more closely integrates an AI chatbot into Google
search. Ostensibly, AI Mode can help people get better answers to their
queries, but it also serves to keep users on a Google property rather than
clicking through to get information from other publications.

"Links were the last redeeming quality of search that gave publishers traffic
and revenue. Now Google just takes content by force and uses it with no
return, the definition of theft," said News/Media Alliance President and CEO
Danielle Coffey. "The DOJ remedies must address this to prevent continued
domination of the internet by one company."

This isn't the first time the organization has fired shots at Google; it
filed an amicus brief earlier this month looking for remedy in the antitrust
case about Google's monopoly control over search. The group argued that
publishers should be able to opt out of letting search engines use their
content for retrieval augmented generation.

Google has also taken an aggressive stance toward publishers as it develops
more AI-driven services. The company's recent attitude can be seen in
Bloomberg's discovery of an internal document showing that the company
decided not to give publishers a choice to opt out of AI training if they
wanted their material to appear in search results.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-
tech/newsmedia-alliance-calls-googles-ai-mode-theft-223128521.html?src=rss

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