UK regulator orders Google to let publishers opt out of AI Search

In short: The UK Competition and Markets Authority has ordered Google to give website owners more control over how their content is used in Google’s AI search features.

What happened

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, or CMA, has introduced a new conduct rule for Google Search. It requires Google to let publishers opt out of AI search features that use their content, including AI Overviews.

AI Overviews are the AI written summaries that can appear at the top of Google results. They are like a “readout” that pulls information from different sites, instead of sending you straight to one page.

The rule also says publishers must be able to stop their content being used to “fine-tune” Google’s AI models. Fine-tuning is a way of improving an AI system by training it more on specific examples, similar to giving a new employee extra practice using your company’s documents.

Google must also make sure publisher content is properly attributed in AI generated results, using clear links. According to the CMA, Google has already started rolling out new controls to a subset of website owners in the UK, and plans to make them available globally after testing.

One of the new controls is a toggle in Google Search Console, a tool website owners use to manage how their sites appear in Google. Publishers will be able to choose whether their pages can show up in AI Overviews, AI Mode, and related AI features. Google says opting out will not affect a site’s ranking in regular search results outside those AI features.

Why it matters

For everyday readers, this could change what you see when you search, and which sites get your clicks. For news sites and other publishers, it is about keeping control of their work and their income, since fewer clicks can mean less ad and subscription revenue.

Source: The Verge AI