Google Invests in AI-Generated Content from Publishers

Google is compensating publishers handsomely for utilizing its AI technology to generate articles, raising concerns about potential repercussions. The tech giant has quietly been engaging in agreements with select publishers to leverage novel generative AI tools for content creation.

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A picture taken on August 28, 2019 shows the US multinational technology and Internet-related services company Google logo application Amazon displayed on a tablet in Lille.

Paying Publishers for Generated Content

These arrangements from Google are rumored to amount to tens of thousands of dollars annually, and purportedly fall under the umbrella of the Google News Initiative (GNI).

GNI is an initiative launched six years ago to support media literacy endeavors, fact-checking utilities, and other journalistic resources. However, Google's foray into employing generative AI for content production represents a novel and undoubtedly contentious move for the corporation.

The initiative is presently focused on a select group of smaller publishers. The beta tools empower these less-resourced publishers to streamline the creation of aggregated content.

This is achieved by indexing recently published reports from various sources, including government agencies and neighboring news outlets, and then summarizing and republishing them as new articles.

The exact payment amount for publishers participating in the arrangement remains undisclosed, but Engadget suggests it amounts to a "five-figure sum" annually.

As part of the agreement, media entities purportedly commit to publishing a minimum of three articles daily, along with a weekly newsletter and a monthly marketing campaign utilizing the provided tools.

Replacing Journalists?

To aid human editors in reviewing the content before publication, the AI-generated text reportedly employs a color-coded system to indicate the reliability of each section.

In response, Google informed Adweek that it is in the initial phases of investigating possibilities to offer AI-powered tools to support journalists in their tasks.

The spokesperson underscored that these AI tools are not designed to, and cannot, replace the vital role journalists fulfill in researching, crafting, and verifying their articles.

The specific advantages Google hopes to derive from this deal are still uncertain, yet it's not unprecedented for a major tech corporation to reimburse news organizations for employing exclusive tools.

This situation parallels the deals Facebook struck with publishers for creating live video content in 2016. Facebook made waves by offering significant payments to publishers to enhance its burgeoning video platform, leading many media entities to pivot toward video content.

Yet, these agreements crumbled as Facebook acknowledged it had significantly overestimated the viewership of such material. Subsequently, the social media platform ended its live video collaborations and tweaked its algorithm to reduce the visibility of news-related content.

This transition towards video-centric content resulted in the elimination of numerous journalism positions, according to estimates.

Although the GNI program appears to function on a smaller scale in contrast to Facebook's prior endeavors with live video, it is expected to reignite examination into the utilization of generative AI tools by publishers.

Entities like CNET and Sports Illustrated have encountered substantial backlash for endeavoring to present AI-generated articles as the product of human authors.