US Senators Call for FTC Investigation into AI Summarization Tools

US Senators urge FTC to launch probe into AI Summarization tools

A group of US senators has written to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice seeking an investigation into new generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools that summarize and regurgitate online content from other sources or platforms. While the senators have not named any such tools in their letter, some examples include Google's AI overviews (previously called Search Generative Experience), Bing's generative search, and Perplexity's News Summary tool. The senators have urged the FTC to investigate these for anti-trust violations arguing that these summarization tools pose risks to competition and innovation in digital content, including journalism. The letter argues that these summarization tools threaten journalists and content creators' abilities to get compensation for their work. While traditional search results or news feed links lead users to a news publication's website, these tools keep the user on the original search platform. In doing so, they ensure that only the search platform can benefit from the user's attention through advertising and data collection activities. In their letter, the senators flag that local news in the US is facing a crisis with newspapers dying out while online platforms like Google and Meta generate billions of dollars per year in advertising revenue from news and other original content. They argue that AI tools that summarize content will only further exacerbate this disparity. Platforms often hide links to original sources behind tabs or place them at the bottom of a page, where users are unlikely to scroll after already reading an answer. Moreover, some generative AI features pass off third-party content as their own as well. These tools force content creators to compete for attention with content generated through their work, while simultaneously pushing the creators' original work to a lower position on the user interface. Search engines require publishers to opt out of being indexed completely if they want to prevent their information from being summarized. This, in turn, will cause the publishers to see a material drop in traffic. This isn't the first time that someone has flagged concerns with AI summaries. Multiple news platforms in the US have filed lawsuits against Microsoft stating that people use the browser with Bing plug-in to circumvent paywalls. They also mentioned that this plug-in (which generates summaries of the publishers' content) makes it completely unnecessary for a reader to visit the news publications' websites. Similarly, a WIRED investigation into the news summarization tool Perplexity found that its web crawler may be accessing web pages that have blocked crawling. The senators' concerns also come in the backdrop of the recent Google earnings which revealed that the company intends to monetize the AI overviews (summaries) by placing ads inside them. Google has previously said that the overviews will be a jumping-off point for information on the web and that it is, "committed to continue sending valuable traffic to sites across the web." However, the fact that the company is using ads in the overviews suggests that it might be inclined to keep people engaged in the summaries. Also read: STAY ON TOP OF TECH NEWS: Our daily newsletter with the top story of the day from MediaNama, delivered to your inbox before 9 AM. Click here to sign up today!

Senate leaders ask FTC to investigate AI content summaries as anti-competitive | TechCrunch

A group of Democratic senators is urging the FTC and Justice Department to investigate whether AI tools that summarize and regurgitate online content like news and recipes may amount to anti-competitive practices. In a letter to the agencies, Senators led by Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) explained their position that the latest AI features are hitting creators and publishers while they're down. As journalistic outlets experience unprecedented consolidation and layoffs, "dominant online platforms, such as Google and Meta, generate billions of dollars per year in advertising revenue from news and other original content created by others. New generative AI features threaten to exacerbate these problems." The letter continues: While a traditional search result or news feed links may lead users to the publisher's website, an AI-generated summary keeps the users on the original search platform, where that platform alone can profit from the user's attention through advertising and data collection. [...] Moreover, some generative AI features misappropriate third-party content and pass it off as novel content generated by the platform's AI. Publishers who wish to avoid having their content summarized in the form of AI-generated search results can only do so if they opt out of being indexed for search completely, which would result in a materially significant drop in referral traffic. In short, these tools may pit content creators against themselves without any recourse to profit from AI-generated content that was composed using their original content. This raises significant competitive concerns in the online marketplace for content and advertising revenues. Essentially, the senators are saying that a handful of major companies control the market for monetizing original content (i.e. via advertising), and that those companies are rigging that market in their favor. Either you consent to having your articles, recipes, stories, and podcast transcripts indexed and used as raw material for an AI, or you're cut out of the loop. The letter goes on to ask the FTC and DOJ to investigate whether these new methods are "a form of exclusionary conduct or an unfair method of competition in violation of the antitrust laws." Though it's clearly a serious issue (and one that affects this outlet), the FTC may have its work cut out for it here. While AI summary of web content may provide highly lopsided benefits, there are many such power relationships in play in business and media, and the bar for anticompetitive behavior is quite high. For instance, in this case, it would have to be shown that the AI makers have overwhelming market power and that they were using that power in ways specifically forbidden by law. Something can be unfair, unethical, and perfectly legal. Considering how hawkish the FTC is on these matters already, however, it's likely that Sen. Klobuchar and her colleagues are preaching to the choir as a prelude to taking action of their own. Klobuchar herself, watching out for journalism and local papers especially, introduced a bill last year aiming to empower the supply side of news licensing negotiations, giving news outlets a bit more clout when asking Google or whoever to pay for their content. Fast forward a year and the concerns of 2022 and early 2023 look quaint: the same companies accused of strong-arming content providers are now, many argue, circumventing the whole market by feeding the content to the AI for summaries. Asking the regulators to take a swing at an industry's undesirable behaviors is part of a paper trail legislators leave when trying to make a law. If the FTC and DOJ find they can't act, it clears the signatories of this letter to propose a new law so that those agencies can act. While last year's save-the-papers bill didn't go far, a new one tied to fears about AI overlords might do better -- certainly it's a good talking point for the election cycle. The letter was co-signed by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Tina Smith (D-MN).

U.S. senators seek federal antitrust investigation of generative AI providers

Sept. 11 (UPI) -- Eight U.S. senators on Tuesday urged the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission to undertake an antitrust investigation of the providers of generative AI content. The senators say the generative AI content providers use information obtained from publishers without their permission, which directs online traffic away from those publishers and decreases their revenues. "Multiple dominant online platforms have introduced new generative AI features that answer user queries by summarizing or ... merely regurgitating online content from other sources or platforms," Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said in a news release Tuesday. "The introduction of these new generative AI features further threatens the ability of journalists and other content creators to earn compensation for their vital work," Klobuchar said. Instead of producing results that link to publishers' websites, she said the generative AI features on platforms like Google keep users on the search platform, which ensures only the search platform profits from revenues generated by ads and data collection. Klobuchar chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer rights. She was joined by Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn; Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii; Dick Durbin, D-Ill.; Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.; Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill.; Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.; and Tina Smith, D-Minn., in calling for the federal agencies to investigate possible antitrust violations by the providers of generative AI content. "Some generative AI features introduced by the already-dominant platforms are a form of exclusionary conduct or an unfair method of competition in violation of the antitrust laws," the lawmakers said in the news release. The search results often provide AI-generated summaries above traditional search results that enable people to visit relevant websites to obtain the information they seek. The placement of the AI summaries at the top of search results pushes legitimate publishers and providers of relevant information farther down on results pages, which makes it less likely people will go to their respective websites, the senators argue. They say the providers of generative AI programs engage in unlawful exclusionary conduct that harms competition by scraping information from news sites and other providers of original content without directing users to the actual sources. The New York Times recently published an article showing the popular ChatGPT generative AI program provided results that were "near-verbatim excerpts" from publishers that require paid subscriptions to view the content. Officials for ChatGPT developer OpenAI said it's impossible for generative AI to work without using copyrighted information from other sources. U.S. lawmakers aren't the only ones looking into potential antitrust violations by the providers of generative AI programs and content. Britain's antitrust division in December opened an investigation to determine if a $10 billion investment by Microsoft in OpenAI creates a business merger that substantially lessens competition.

Senators Believe AI Summaries May Be an Antitrust Violation

You're not the only one sick of scrolling past AI summarizations at the top of every internet searchâ€"a group of eight Democratic senators has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether the practice adopted by Google and other big tech platforms violates antitrust laws. In a letter to the FTC, the senators wrote that AI summaries unfairly lift content from news outlets and other publishers without permission, directing internet traffic and the associated ad revenue, away from the original sources. "When a generative AI feature answers a query directly, it often forces the content creatorâ€"whose content has been relegated to a lower position on the user interfaceâ€"to compete with content generated from their own work," the senators wrote. The only way for publishers to avoid having their content misappropriated by big tech platforms' generative AI summaries is to opt out of having their websites indexed by search engines altogether, effectively a death blow for any online business, according to the letter, which was signed by senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Tina Smith (D-MN). The lawmakers' call for an antitrust investigation comes as Google, by far the most dominant search engine, is already facing its third antitrust trial in 10 months. In December, a federal jury found that Google maintained a monopoly over apps built for Android devices. The case was brought by video game maker Epic Games, which argued that Google undermined Epic and other developers' attempts to create their own Android marketplaces and instead forced phone owners to purchase and download apps through the Google Play Store, which charged a commission of up to 30 percent on every transaction. In August, a federal judge ruled that Google operated another illegal monopoly that controlled about 90 percent of the internet search market thanks to agreements that ensured Google was installed as the default search engine on phones and web browsers. In the third trial, which began this week, the Department of Justice and a coalition of states have accused Google of more illegal anti-competitive practices in online advertising. They argue that Google bought out the companies that acted as middlemen between online advertisers and publishers and used that controlling position to crush competition. In their letter to the FTC, the group of senators pointed out that as big tech companies' control over online search traffic and their profits from online advertising have soared, local newspapers and publishers have suffered. The placement of AI-generated summaries at the top of search results, which Google foisted upon the internet in May, has only exacerbated that dynamic. "While a traditional search result or news feed links may lead users to the publisher’s website, an AI-generated summary keeps the users on the original search platform, where that platform alone can profit from the user’s attention through advertising and data collection," the senators wrote. "Although these features may provide partial citations or links to sources, they are often hidden behind tabs or at the bottom of a page where users are unlikely to scroll after already reading an answer."

US Senators Argue Generative AI Harms Content Creators and Violates Antitrust Laws

Governments worldwide are grappling with generative artificial intelligence (AI) and how to deal with it. In the United States, movement has been generally slow and limited. A group of Senators have joined to urge the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate generative AI products for antitrust violations. As Engadget reports, U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Chairwoman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights, along with Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Sheldon Whitehouse (R-DI), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Tina Smith (D-MN) sent a letter to Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan and Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter outlining "the risks that new generative artificial intelligence (AI) features pose to competition and innovation in digital content, including journalism, and to urge both agencies to investigate whether the design of these features violates the antitrust laws." "Recently, multiple dominant online platforms have introduced new generative AI features that answer user queries by summarizing, or, in some cases, merely regurgitating online content from other sources or platforms. The introduction of these new generative AI features further threatens the ability of journalists and other content creators to earn compensation for their vital work," the letter explains. "While a traditional search result or news feed links may lead users to the publisher's website, an AI-generated summary keeps the users on the original search platform, where that platform alone can profit from the user's attention through advertising and data collection. Moreover, some generative AI features misappropriate third-party content and pass it off as novel content generated by the platform's AI." The lawmakers added that for the reasons above, the Department of Justice Antitrust Division and the FTC should investigate whether some generative AI features, "introduced by already dominant platforms," constitute exclusionary conduct and unfair competition, which violate American antitrust laws. The crux of the issue is generative AI technology's ability to "merely regurgitate" content written by real people, including small, local journalists. Klobuchar and others argue that this threatens "the ability of journalists and other content creators to earn compensation for their vital work." "Local news is facing a crisis. A recent study found that the U.S. has lost approximately 2,900 newspapers, and that a third of the newspapers that existed in 2005 will have disappeared by the end of this year," the letter explains. "At the same time, dominant online platforms, such as Google and Meta, generate billions of dollars per year in advertising revenue from news and other original content created by others. New generative AI features threaten to exacerbate these problems." The lawmakers argue that if generative AI technology is scraping existing, human-created online content and then cherry-picking bits and pieces, without necessarily citing the source, it constitutes exclusionary, anti-competitive conduct. It isn't just the small news players under threat; even significant stalwarts in the field face risks. The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft late last year in response to OpenAI using NYT articles to train AI technology like ChatGPT. "Defendants seek to free-ride on The Times's massive investment in its journalism," NYT's complaint explained. This free-ride problem is arguably harmful to all news organizations.

US senators urge regulators to probe potential AI antitrust violations

Generative AI threatens the livelihoods of 'journalists and other content creators,' they wrote. The US government has noticed the potentially negative effects of generative AI on areas like journalism and content creation. Senator Amy Klobuchar, along with seven Democrat colleagues, urged the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Justice Department to probe generative AI products like ChatGPT for potential antitrust violations, they wrote in a press release. "Recently, multiple dominant online platforms have introduced new generative AI features that answer user queries by summarizing, or, in some cases, merely regurgitating online content from other sources or platforms," the letter states. "The introduction of these new generative AI features further threatens the ability of journalists and other content creators to earn compensation for their vital work." The lawmakers went on to note that traditional search results lead users to publishers' websites while AI-generated summaries keep the users on the search platform "where that platform alone can profit from the user's attention through advertising and data collection." The fact that AI may be scraping news sites and then not even directing users to the original source could be a form of "exclusionary conduct or an unfair method of competition in violation of antitrust laws," the lawmakers concluded. (That's on top being a potential violation of copyright laws, but that's another legal battle altogether.) Lawmakers have already proposed a couple of bills designed to protect artists, journalists and other from unauthorized generative AI use. In July, three senators introduced the COPIED Act to combat and monitor the rise of AI content and deepfakes. Later in the month, a group of senators introduced the NO FAKES Act, a law that would make it illegal to make digital recreations of a person's voice or likeness without their consent. AI poses a particularly large risk to journalism, both local and global, by removing the sources of revenue that allow for original and investigative reporting. The New York Times, for one, cited instances of ChatGPT providing users with "near-verbatim excerpts" from paywalled articles. OpenAI recently admitted that it's impossible to train generative AI without copyrighted materials.