Chegg, an educational technology business, is suing Google, arguing that the search engine’s AI Overviews feature is hurting demand for original material and making it harder for publishers to rival one another. Google Search’s AI-generated summaries of search results are called AI Overviews.
In a complaint filed in Washington, DC, Chegg claimed that Google is stealing material from publishers to keep people on its own website, so removing the financial incentives that encourage content production, according to a report by media.
It contends that a “hollowed-out information ecosystem of little use and unworthy of trust” is what Google’s activities would eventually result in. Since the launch of Google’s AI overviews, the firm has seen a drop in subscriptions and website traffic. Consequently, Chegg CEO Nathan Schultz disclosed that the business is now investigating a possible take-private or sale deal.
“Our lawsuit is about more than Chegg – it’s about the digital publishing industry, the future of internet search, and about students losing access to quality, step-by-step learning in favor of low-quality, unverified AI summaries,” Schultz stated. He further accused Google of profiting from Chegg’s content without compensation.
What Google has to say
Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda dismissed the claims as “meritless”,” the report added.
“With AI Overviews, people find Search more helpful and use it more, creating new opportunities for content to be discovered. Every day, Google sends billions of clicks to sites across the web, and AI Overviews send traffic to a greater diversity of sites,” Castaneda added.
The main focus of Chegg’s complaint is the long-standing practice of publishers permitting Google to scan their websites in order to provide search results, which Google then sells ads for. When people click on the results, publishers get search traffic in exchange.
But according to Chegg, Google has started pressuring publishers to consent to the use of their data for AI summaries and other purposes, which has led to a sharp decline in site traffic. Google CEO Sundar Pichai recently emphasized the company’s robust search growth, which is fueled by AI Overviews, during the World Government Summit in the United Arab Emirates. Additionally, according to the senior executive, links placed inside AI Overviews have greater clickthrough rates than ones placed outside of them.
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