Brussels is asking publishers whether Google’s AI opt-out is any use

Google gave publishers a way to opt out of its AI search features in June without affecting their ordinary search rankings.

The European Commission has spent the summer trying to work out whether that option actually gives publishers any meaningful choice.

The Commission sent publishers a questionnaire in July, with a deadline of August 28, asking whether they planned to use the opt-out, what would make them use it and how they viewed Google’s decision in May to combine AI Overviews and AI Mode into a single AI Search experience, Reuters reported.

The question of whether publishers will actually use the opt-out is central to the whole exercise.

If publishers cannot realistically use it without losing traffic, then the existence of an opt-out does not necessarily give them much control over how Google uses their content.

Publishers are effectively choosing between two unattractive options. Staying in Google’s AI search...

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