Several companies based online are threatening to block Google’s crawler that collects information to train its AI.
Ad revenue has taken a hit during the past decade, firstly with the widespread use of ad-blockers, and now with Google search prioritizing AI summaries.
Google utilizes a crawler to pull information from the web for its AI summaries, but the problem is that there is very little to zero attribution involved, and this results in a significant decrease in traffic for websites, which in turn equals a significant decrease in revenue.
In the past, search results have consisted of a list of clickable links to websites, which meant users needed to visit a website in order to view the information they were after, but now users are largely sourcing that information from the AI summaries, which invariably sit atop the list of results.
Now online entities – including USA Today, Reuters, Politico, The Economist, and People Inc – are all threatening to block Google’s AI crawler if the lack of clear attribution is not rectified.
How Will This Affect You?
The trend for AI summaries in search results will have no immediate impact on users. However, if the trend continues unabated, we will see more and more websites forced to close down, the logical consequence of which is a monopoly of the web by the wealthiest/largest online entities.
In short, it will drastically change the face of the World Wide Web forever.
- You also might like: Google’s AI Search Will Ruin The Internet!
BOTTOM LINE:
I’ve said previously that I’m surprised affected websites (which is the vast majority) haven’t banded together in a class action lawsuit to force Google into providing due attribution with its AI summaries. I’m pretty sure they would have a strong case.
That said, Google is a wealthy and powerful entity, so I can understand any reluctance to take the company on.
I recently posed two questions to well-known tech writer Leo Notenboom, for whom I have the utmost respect, in response to his recent Is Google Forcing Everyone Into AI Search? article:
- How does the AI choose which sites it uses to source its information? Is it working with a list of top sites in the genre based on traffic numbers? Or are websites maybe covertly paying for priority?
- How can Google search (and other search engines) get away with presenting information sourced from websites without adequate attribution? They are ripping ad revenue from websites without any sort of compensation; surely there must be cause for a class action lawsuit?
To which Leo replied concisely:
- We don’t know.
- Because they can? There will be legal challenges, of course, but I’m skeptical of the outcome.
Me too, Leo.
As always, your comments are most welcome.
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