The European Commission has initiated an antitrust investigation into global tech giant Google for allegedly flouting European Union (EU) competition rules by utilising web publishers’ content and YouTube videos to train its artificial intelligence (AI) models, a press release dated December 9 reveals.
The EU’s primary executive branch says the investigation will centre on whether Google is imposing unfair terms on independent web publishers and content creators, and consequently placing rival AI model developers at a disadvantage.
Notably, the present antitrust investigation stems from a complaint filed by a group of independent publishers with the European Commission in July this year.
For context, these publishers accused Google of misusing its market power within the online search domain, which, in turn, hurt their web traffic numbers.
“Google’s core search engine service is misusing web content for Google’s AI Overviews in Google Search, which have caused, and continue to cause, significant harm to publishers, including news publishers, in the form of traffic, readership, and revenue loss,” the publishers’ alliance stated in its complaint.
What Is The European Commission Investigating Exactly?
With respect to the current antitrust investigation, the European Commission says it is concerned that Google may have:
1) Used web publishers’ content to power its generative AI services, namely AI Overviews and AI Mode—on its search results page without providing commensurate compensation to publishers. The Commission is also concerned that Google did this without offering publishers the opportunity to refuse such use in the first place.
As such, the EU’s executive arm says it will investigate the extent to which results displayed as part of AI Overviews and AI Mode are based on web publishers’ content, and whether publishers can refuse such use without losing access to Google Search.
2) Used content on YouTube to train AI models without commensurate compensation to content creators, and without giving them the opportunity to refuse such use.
For context, content creators uploading videos on YouTube are obligated to grant Google permission to use their data for different purposes, including training generative AI models.
Interestingly, Google does not remunerate YouTube content creators for this use, nor does it allow them to upload content without granting Google the right to utilise such data.
At the same time, rival AI model developers are barred from using YouTube content to train their own models.
“AI is bringing remarkable innovation and many benefits for people and businesses across Europe, but this progress cannot come at the expense of the principles at the heart of our societies. This is why we are investigating whether Google may have imposed unfair terms and conditions on publishers and content creators, while placing rival AI models developers at a disadvantage,”…
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