The program is part of the Google News Initiative (GNI), which was launched in 2018 to provide publishers with technology and training. Despite the benefits to the publishers involved, the broader reception of GNI has been mixed. Critics argue that Google is using GNI to generate positive press and solve commercial problems it created, while others worry about the potential for AI to replace journalists and the ethical implications of using AI to scrape and republish content.
Key takeaways:
- Google has launched a private program for a select group of independent publishers, providing them with beta access to an unreleased generative artificial intelligence platform in exchange for analytics and feedback.
- The publishers are expected to use the AI tools to produce a fixed volume of content for 12 months and in return, they receive a monthly stipend and the means to produce content at no cost.
- The AI tools allow publishers to create aggregated content more efficiently by indexing recently published reports from other organizations and summarizing them into a new article.
- Despite the benefits, there are concerns that the program could draw traffic away from original sources and negatively impact their businesses, and that it does not add any new information to the mix.