Google Strikes Deals with Publishers to Use New AI Tools for Publishing Stories
Google has recently entered into agreements with a select number of publishers to utilize cutting-edge generative AI tools for publishing stories, as per a report by Adweek. These deals, valued at tens of thousands of dollars per year, fall under the Google News Initiative (GNI), a program that has been funding media literacy projects, fact-checking tools, and various other resources for newsrooms over the past six years. This move into generative AI publishing tools represents a new and potentially contentious step for the tech giant.
According to Adweek, Google’s program is currently targeting a handful of smaller publishers. Through the usage of beta tools, these under-resourced publishers can efficiently create aggregated content by indexing recently generated reports from other organizations, including government agencies and neighboring news outlets. The AI tools then summarize these reports, allowing publishers to publish them as new articles.
A Google spokesperson, in a statement to Engadget, denied any notions that the AI tools are being employed to republish the work of other publications. The spokesperson clarified that these experimental tools are designed responsibly to aid small, local publishers in producing quality journalism by utilizing factual content from public data sources, such as a local government’s public information office or health authority. Moreover, publishers exercise full editorial control over the content that is ultimately published on their site.
Supporting Under-resourced Publishers
The exact payment terms for publishers involved in the program remain undisclosed. However, according to Adweek, publishers are being offered a five-figure sum annually. In return, these media organizations are alleged to commit to publishing a minimum of three articles per day, a weekly newsletter, and a monthly marketing campaign, all generated with the assistance of the AI tools.
Notably, publishers participating in the program are not currently required to disclose their utilization of AI, nor are the aggregated websites informed that their content is being employed to create AI-written stories elsewhere. The AI-generated articles reportedly adopt a color-coded system to indicate the credibility of each section of text. This system assists human editors in reviewing the content for publication.
A Google spokesperson, in a statement to Adweek, acknowledged that the company is in the early stages of exploring the potential for AI-enabled tools to aid journalists in their work. The spokesperson emphasized that these AI tools are not intended to replace the essential roles that journalists play in reporting, creating, and fact-checking articles.
Comparisons to Facebook’s Past Dealmaking
Google’s intentions in these arrangements are not entirely clear, albeit not unprecedented for tech firms to financially support newsrooms for using proprietary tools. This system bears resemblances to the deals Facebook entered in 2016 to incentivize publishers to create live video content. Facebook’s payment of millions of dollars to publishers made headlines, creating a trend for dozens of media outlets to “pivot to video.”
However, Facebook later realized that it had wildly miscalculated the viewership of this content, leading Facebook to end these live video deals and modify its news content recommendations. The media industry’s pivot to video had severe consequences, resulting in job loss for hundreds of journalists, as estimated by some.
While Google’s GNI program seems smaller in scale compared to Facebook’s previous efforts, it is likely to attract renewed attention regarding the use of AI tools in publishing. Publications like CNET and Sports Illustrated have drawn widespread criticism for their attempts to portray AI-authored articles as human-authored ones.
Update February 28, 2024, 1:10 PM ET: Additional information has been incorporated in this story from a Google spokesperson.
