The fine comes amid concerns raised by publishers, writers, and newsrooms that AI services are scraping the internet for content, including copyrighted content, to train their services. Several news organizations have blocked OpenAI from scanning their websites for content, and lawsuits have been filed against OpenAI and Meta Platforms Inc. for copyright infringement. Google claims it's the first and only platform to have signed licensing agreements with 280 French press publishers, costing them tens of millions of euros per year.
Key takeaways:
- Google has been fined $272 million by France's competition watchdog, Autorité de la Concurrence, for using copyrighted information from EU media publishers to train its AI chatbot, Gemini.
- The fine is part of a longer saga that began in 2020 when a French court ruled that corporations must pay when they use the intellectual property of media producers, according to 2019 EU copyright regulations.
- Google has stated that it believes the fine is not proportionate to the issues and doesn't take into account the efforts they've made to resolve the concerns. The company also mentioned the lack of clear guidance since the regulations came into effect.
- The issue of AI services scraping the internet for content, including copyrighted content, to train their services is becoming increasingly contentious, with multiple news organizations and authors filing lawsuits against companies like OpenAI and Meta Platforms Inc.