The arrangement is reminiscent of Facebook's deals with publishers to create live video content in 2016, which later ended after Facebook miscalculated the views such content was getting. The use of generative AI tools by publishers, such as CNET and Sports Illustrated, has been widely criticized for attempting to pass off AI-authored articles as human-written.
Key takeaways:
- Google has been making deals with publishers to use generative AI tools to publish stories, as part of the Google News Initiative (GNI).
- The AI tools allow publishers to create aggregated content more efficiently by summarizing and publishing reports from other organizations.
- Publishers in the program are not required to disclose their use of AI, and the aggregated websites are not informed that their content is being used to create AI-written stories on other sites.
- The arrangement is similar to deals Facebook once made with publishers to create live video content, which later led to the loss of hundreds of journalist jobs when the social network ended its live video deals.