Rolling Stone parent Penske Media sues Google over AI summaries and content use

New Delhi: Google is facing a lawsuit filed by Penske Media Corporation (PMC), which accuses the company of illegally using publishers’ content to create AI-generated summaries that harm their business, according to a report.

PMC, which owns publications including Rolling Stone, Billboard, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, Vibe and Artforum, has brought the case against Google and its parent company Alphabet. 

While this marks the first action of its kind against Google over AI Overviews, other publishers and authors have previously filed cases against different AI companies raising similar copyright concerns. In Europe, Google is already facing an antitrust complaint relating to AI Overviews.

“As a leading global publisher, we have a duty to protect PMC’s best-in-class journalists and award-winning journalism as a source of truth,” said Penske Media CEO Jay Penske in a statement. “Furthermore, we have a responsibility to proactively fight for the future of digital media and preserve its integrity, all of which is threatened by Google’s current actions.”

Google introduced AI Overviews last year, sparking criticism that the feature undermines the business models of publishers who provide the underlying content. The lawsuit argues that Google continues to “wield its monopoly to coerce PMC into permitting Google to republish PMC’s content in AI Overviews” and to use that content to train its AI models.

Responding to the claims, Google spokesperson José Castañeda said in a statement that AI Overviews make search “more helpful” and create “new opportunities for content to be discovered.”

“Every day, Google sends billions of clicks to sites across the web, and AI Overviews send traffic to a greater diversity of sites,” Castañeda said. “We will defend against these meritless claims.”

The lawsuit states that PMC permits Google to crawl its sites under what it describes as an exchange of access for traffic, which it considers the basis of the commercial web. However, it argues that Google has now linked this arrangement to additional conditions that publishers do not agree to.

According to the filing, Google requires publishers to provide content for other uses that reduce or replace search referrals, making it harder for readers to reach publisher websites. The lawsuit says the only alternative would be to withdraw entirely from Google search, which it describes as a devastating prospect.

PMC claims it has already seen a marked drop in clicks from Google searches since the introduction of AI Overviews, which has negatively affected advertising, subscriptions and affiliate income. These revenue streams, it says, depend on audiences visiting publisher websites directly.

The lawsuit also alleges that Google has not provided any credible data to counter these concerns over referral traffic.

The case follows a recent US ruling in which a federal judge found Google had acted unlawfully to maintain its dominance in search, though no breakup of its businesses was ordered. The decision took into account rising competition in artificial intelligence.