Google Decided Against Offering Publishers Options In AI Search

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: While using website data to build a Google Search topped with artificial intelligence-generated answers, an Alphabet executive acknowledged in an internal document that there was an alternative way to do things: They could ask web publishers for permission, or let them directly opt out of being included. But giving publishers a choice would make training AI models in search too complicated, the company concludes in the document, which was unearthed in the company's search antitrust trial.

It said Google had a 'hard red line' and would require all publishers who wanted their content to show up in the search page to also be used to feed AI features. Instead of giving options, Google decided to 'silently update,' with 'no public announcement' about how they were using publishers' data, according to the document, written by Chetna Bindra, a product management executive at Google Search. 'Do what we say, say what we do, but carefully.' 'It's a little bit damning,' said Paul Bannister, the chief strategy officer at Raptive, which represents online creators. 'It pretty clearly shows that they knew there was a range of options and they pretty much chose the most conservative, most protective of them -- the option that didn't give publishers any controls at all.'

For its part, Google said in a statement to Bloomberg: 'Publishers have always controlled how their content is made available to Google as AI models have been built into Search for many years, helping surface relevant sites and driving traffic to them. This document is an early-stage list of options in an evolving space and doesn't reflect feasibility or actual decisions.' They added that Google continually updates its product documentation for search online.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.