The article also discusses the growing contention between Google and publishers over the use of their content to produce AI Overviews. Google has been in talks with publishers about compensation for the use of their content in training large language models (LLMs). Major companies like Google, OpenAI, and Meta are increasingly focusing on content from reputable news sources when training LLMs. The article also mentions a study by Ziff Davis that shows LLM training datasets are disproportionately composed of high-quality content owned by commercial publishers of news and media websites.
Key takeaways:
- Shailesh Prakash, vice president and general manager for Google News, has resigned after joining Google two years ago from the Washington Post.
- Prakash was known to be important to Google's relationships with publishers and was recruited to smooth any hardships Google had experienced with publishers.
- Google has faced scrutiny over its business practices with publishers and the alleged harm they have caused to news publishers, which rely on the search giant for site traffic that underpins ad sales.
- Google and other AI companies are placing greater emphasis on content from reputable news sources when training large language models (LLMs), leading to discussions about compensation for the use of their content.