Google is reportedly paying publishers to push AI content

Google Search hasn’t been overrun with articles generated by artificial intelligence yet, but it’s a growing possibility. Google’s search engine has already caught flack for failing to sort through SEO content, so AI-generated articles could only make things worse. But according to Adweek, Google doesn’t share this view. In fact, the company is allegedly paying news publishers to push AI-generated content. Adweek says it saw documents related to a new Google program that would pay publishers in exchange for their use of an experimental AI platform. Essentially, the publishers push AI-generated content for a year using the experimental platform, and Google receives feedback.

Adweek says that the publishers receive “a five-figure sum annually” to publish the AI content. The program is part of what Google calls the Google News Initiative, which is aimed at producing resources for publishers. When a publisher uses the new AI tool, it will reportedly create a news article with generative AI based on other published works.

Google thinks it isn’t paying publishers to replace journalists

“In partnership with news publishers, especially smaller publishers, we’re in the early stages of exploring ideas to potentially provide AI-enabled tools to help journalists with their work,” Google said in a statement. “This speculation about this tool being used to re-publish other outlets’ work is inaccurate.”

“The experimental tool is being responsibly designed to help small, local publishers produce high-quality journalism using factual content from public data sources—like a local government’s public information office or health authority,” the company continued. “These tools are not intended to, and cannot, replace the essential role journalists have in reporting, creating and fact-checking their articles.”

Regardless of Google’s official position, it’s impossible to ignore the obvious. The use cases Google describes for its experimental AI tool are for tasks human writers currently perform. So, with Google paying publishers to use this feature, human journalism could take a hit.

The details of Google’s plan to pay publishers

Google’s program very specifically outlines what publishers need to do. The company requires three stories daily, one newsletter weekly, and one marketing campaign monthly. Publishers can pick and choose what sources to aggregate content from. Then, when a new article pops up, the process begins. Publishers can select an article and use generative AI to create a news-style summary from it.

Generative AI can’t add context like a human writer can, which has led to criticism. Opponents of the program allege that Google and the publishers are effectively stealing others’ work. Google, of course, denies that this is the case.