Google Pursues AI Licensing Deals with News Publishers Amid Industry Tensions

Google is reportedly pursuing AI licensing deals with news publishers

Google is reportedly talking to publishers for licensing their content for AI tools. Credit: arkanto / iStock Editorial / Getty Images Google is reportedly talking to publishers for AI licensing deals, as the relationship between media and AI industries grows contentious. According to Bloomberg, Google is reportedly preparing to launch a "pilot project initially with about 20 national news outlets," where the participants would license their content for Google's AI tools. There isn't much detail beyond the initial report, but it sounds similar to the strategy that OpenAI has employed. Over the past few years, OpenAI has struck licensing deals with major publishers like Hearst, Condé Nast, Vox Media, The Atlantic, and News Corp. Perplexity is second in the number of deals brokered with publishers. Amidst this backdrop, multiple publishers report that AI tools like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode have resulted in plummeting traffic. A report from the the Wall Street Journal recently described the situation as "AI Armageddon" for online news publishers, which it said were being "crushed" by Google's AI search tools. A recent article in The Economist was even more blunt. Over an illustration of a gravestone, the magazine wrote, "AI is killing the web." Google already has an AI licensing partnership with The Associated Press to offer real-time news updates with its Gemini model. It also has a $60 million licensing deal with Reddit. But this reported pilot would be a notable expansion of this strategy. "We've said that we're exploring and experimenting with new types of partnerships and product experiences, but we aren't sharing details about specific plans or conversations at this time," said a Google spokesperson. The publishing world is divided on how to navigate the use of their content for training AI models. Bots from AI companies scrape every corner of the internet for valuable training data, which is fed to large language models (LLMs) to shape chatbot responses. Some publishers and authors have accused companies of copyright infringement for using this content without permission or compensation. The New York Times is currently in the middle of a lawsuit with OpenAI and Microsoft for this very reason, one of many such lawsuits. (Mashable's parent company Ziff Davis is also suing OpenAI for copyright infringement.) Other publishers have taken the opposite approach, agreeing to license their content, citing new ways for readers to discover their stories. Although the terms of licensing deals with OpenAI haven't been publicly disclosed, publisher Dotdash Meredith is reportedly receiving $16 million a year, while a report from The Information said some publishers are only receiving as little as $1 million a year. Tech companies' claims that using scraped content is protected by the fair use legal doctrine remain undecided in the eyes of the law. Although Anthropic and Meta recently won cases against authors with the fair use argument, a pre-publication version of a highly anticipated AI report from the U.S. Copyright Office generally favored copyright holders with AI training. While courts deliberate over specific fair use cases, the growing AI licensing market is possibly a sign of acknowledgement that tech companies need to play nice with publishers in exchange for high-quality data. Meanwhile, Google's introduction of AI-generated summaries and AI Mode continues to throttle outbound traffic, according to numerous accounts from publishers. Instead of clicking out to sites from Google search results, users are served information from Google's AI models on the search page. On a page of the Google AI site, the company says it is "engaging with the ecosystem to explore new types of partnership and value-exchange models." As the generative AI boom upends the digital media landscape, Google could have a huge influence on the future of online publishing.

Google now wants to pay publishers for their content to train its AI

According to Bloomberg, Google is engaging with news publishers to establish AI licensing agreements, initiating a pilot project with approximately 20 national news outlets to license their content for Google's artificial intelligence tools. This development occurs as the relationship between the media and AI industries becomes increasingly complex. The reported pilot project from Google aligns with a strategy previously employed by OpenAI. Over the past several years, OpenAI has secured licensing deals with various prominent publishers, including Hearst, Condé Nast, Vox Media, The Atlantic, and News Corp. Perplexity also maintains a significant number of brokered deals with publishers in this evolving landscape. In parallel, numerous publishers indicate that the advent of AI tools, such as ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode, has resulted in substantial declines in website traffic. The Wall Street Journal characterized this situation as "AI Armageddon" for online news publishers, asserting that they are being "crushed" by Google's AI search functionalities. The Economist further underscored this sentiment in a recent article, depicting a gravestone illustration and stating, "AI is killing the web." Google has already established an AI licensing partnership with The Associated Press, facilitating real-time news updates for its Gemini model. Additionally, Google holds a $60 million licensing agreement with Reddit. The proposed pilot project, however, signifies a notable expansion of Google's licensing strategy within the publishing sector. A Google spokesperson stated, "We've said that we're exploring and experimenting with new types of partnerships and product experiences, but we aren't sharing details about specific plans or conversations at this time." The publishing industry faces a critical decision regarding the utilization of their content for training AI models. AI company bots systematically scrape vast amounts of internet content for valuable training data, which is subsequently fed into large language models (LLMs) to formulate chatbot responses. This practice has generated divergent responses from content creators. Some publishers and authors have initiated legal action, alleging copyright infringement due to the use of their content without explicit permission or compensation. The New York Times is currently engaged in a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft concerning this issue. Ziff Davis, the parent company of Mashable, also filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April, alleging copyright infringement in the training and operation of its AI systems. Other publishers have adopted a different approach, agreeing to license their content. These entities often cite the potential for new avenues through which readers can discover their stories. While the specific terms of licensing deals with OpenAI have not been publicly disclosed, reports indicate varying financial arrangements. Dotdash Meredith is reportedly receiving $16 million annually from a licensing deal, while a report from The Information suggested that some publishers are receiving as little as $1 million per year. The legal validity of tech companies' claims that using scraped content is protected by the fair use doctrine remains unresolved in judicial proceedings. Although Anthropic and Meta recently prevailed in cases against authors using the fair use argument, a pre-publication version of a U.S. Copyright Office report on AI generally favored copyright holders concerning AI training. While courts continue to deliberate on specific fair use cases, the expanding AI licensing market may indicate an acknowledgment by tech companies of the need for collaboration with publishers in exchange for access to high-quality data. Simultaneously, the introduction of Google's AI-generated summaries and AI Mode continues to impede outbound traffic to publishers' sites, according to numerous accounts from publishing entities. Instead of users navigating to external websites from Google search results, information is directly presented by Google's AI models on the search page. On its AI site, Google states that it is "engaging with the ecosystem to explore new types of partnership and value-exchange models."

Google may start paying news outlets for their coverage to train AI

Google is seeking to recruit news organizations for a new licensing project related to artificial intelligence, according to people familiar with the matter, a sign the company wants to strengthen strained ties with the industry. The company plans to launch a pilot project initially with about 20 national news outlets, according to one of the people, who works at a media outlet that was contacted and asked not to be identified discussing private talks. "We've said that we're exploring and experimenting with new types of partnerships and product experiences, but we aren't sharing details about specific plans or conversations at this time," a Google spokesperson said in a statement. Getting Google to pay for content for AI projects could be a big win for struggling media companies, which have lost readers and advertisers to digital outlets for years and view artificial intelligence as a new, potentially existential threat. Except a partnership with The Associated Press earlier this year and a 2024 pact with Reddit, Google has mostly sat on the sidelines while AI rivals strike deals with publishers. Startups Perplexity AI and OpenAI have both started paying publishers to use their content in their chatbots, giving the media companies a much-needed infusion of revenue. Google's licensing project is tailored to specific products, according to another person familiar with the plan. They didn't share additional details of the program, such as possible terms. Google cites articles and online outlets in its AI Overviews, which are short, AI-generated responses that top many search results. While publishers believe those summaries have cut traffic to their websites, they have been hesitant to shield their content from Google's AI tools for fear of hurting their visibility in the company's search results. Silicon Valley and the media industry have been at odds over tech companies' use of news content to build AI programs, with publishers worried it will further erode their relationship with readers. In late 2023, The New York Times sued OpenAI, alleging that the startup and its largest investor, Microsoft, relied on copyrighted articles to train the popular ChatGPT chatbot and other artificial intelligence features. Yet as the media industry increasingly speaks out about the need for compensation, technology companies seem to be recognizing they must come to terms with news outlets, said David Gehring, CEO of Distributed Media Lab, a company that works with publishers and advertisers. Gehring said he had no knowledge of Google's latest talks with publishers. "Google and the other platforms realize that -- if not by virtue of public policy then by virtue of technology -- the platforms' access to unlimited web data is about to end," said Gehring, who previously worked on news partnerships at Google and the U.K. newspaper the Guardian. "And so they need to have licensing relationships in place, or there won't be any blood to put in the veins of the AI monster." In July, Cloudflare Inc., a web infrastructure and security company, announced a "pay per crawl" program that lets creators bill AI services for access to their content. "Google still thinks they're special and that they don't have to play by the same rules that the rest of the industry does," Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince said in an interview. "Eventually, Google will get in line with what the large AI companies have been saying for a long time, which is that ultimately content providers need to be paid for their content." Google has long engaged in a delicate dance with news outlets. Many publishers depend on the search engine for traffic when news breaks. Yet industry leaders have cried foul about the tech giant's use of their content in products such as Google News, which displays headlines and short snippets of articles. In the past, Google has offered programs such as Google News Showcase to compensate publishers without undermining its core argument that the copyright doctrine of fair use permits use of their material. The company has also been more open to striking deals with wire services such as the AP, which are in the business of licensing content. Earlier this year, Google announced a partnership with the AP to provide news for its Gemini chatbot, its first deal of that nature. The tech giant has also explored an audio AI news product under its Gemini brand that leverages the content it's licensing from the AP, according to a person familiar with the matter. For the long-term health of the news business, Danielle Coffey, president of the News/Media Alliance trade group, said she is focused on ensuring the industry has "a legally sustainable right to compensation and protections that will provide a fair market exchange for our valuable content across the board."

Google Wants to Recruit News Outlets for AI Licensing Project | PYMNTS.com

The tech giant hopes to launch a pilot project with around 20 national news organizations, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday (July 22), citing sources familiar with the matter. "We've said that we're exploring and experimenting with new types of partnerships and product experiences, but we aren't sharing details about specific plans or conversations at this time," a Google spokesperson told Bloomberg. The report contends that getting Google to pay for content for its artificial intelligence (AI) efforts could mark a victory for media companies amid falling readership and ad revenues. Aside from partnerships with the Associated Press and Reddit, Bloomberg adds, Google hasn't made the same type of media deals as rivals like Perplexity and OpenAI, both of which pay publishers for their content. One source told Bloomberg that Google's licensing effort is designed around specific products, without sharing further details of the project. As Bloomberg notes, Google cites articles and online publications in its AI Overviews, the brief AI-generated responses at the top of search results. Publishers argue these summarizations have reduced traffic to their sites, the report adds, though they are reluctant to hide their content from Google's AI out of concern that they'd be less visible in search results. The media and tech industries have for years clashed over Silicon Valley's use of news stories to build AI programs. Some of those disputes have ended up in court, such as The New York Times' suit against OpenAI and Microsoft. That case is ongoing, with a judge recently ruling that OpenAI must retain consumer ChatGPT and API data indefinitely. That order was in response to a demand from the plaintiffs, who say that data may support their case. OpenAI has appealed the order, saying it conflicts with its privacy commitments. The order came in response to a demand from The New York Times and other plaintiffs in a lawsuit they brought against the artificial intelligence (AI) company, because they believe the data might support their case, OpenAI said in a Thursday (June 5) blog post. More recently, AI company Cohere was sued by a group of media companies for copyright infringement, alleging that the company had improperly used at least 4,000 copyrighted works to train its AI large language model. A spokesperson for Cohere told PYMNTS the company stands by its training practices and prioritizes controls to lower the risk of intellectual property infringement, and called the lawsuit "misguided and frivolous."