Google's Innovative Move: Paying Publishers to Test Unreleased Gen AI Platform
Google has recently made headlines by launching a private program for select independent publishers, offering them beta access to an unreleased generative artificial intelligence platform. In exchange for their feedback and analytics, publishers are required to produce a fixed volume of content using the suite of tools for a period of 12 months. This innovative initiative comes as part of the Google News Initiative, aimed at providing publishers with cutting-edge technology and training opportunities.
The program entails participating publishers to generate and publish three articles per day, one newsletter per week, and one marketing campaign per month using the AI platform. The tool allows under-resourced publishers to create aggregated content more efficiently by indexing and summarizing reports from various sources such as government agencies and neighboring news outlets. This process enables publishers to produce relevant and engaging content for their readership at no cost.
Despite speculations, Google has clarified that the AI tool is not designed to replicate or re-publish content from other sources without consent. Instead, it is intended to assist small and local publishers in producing high-quality journalism using factual content from public data sources. The platform's gen AI tool helps in summarizing articles in a news story format, making the content creation process more streamlined for publishers.
However, concerns have been raised regarding the potential impact of this initiative on original content creators. The platform's ability to summarize articles from external sources may divert traffic away from the original publishers, affecting their businesses. Additionally, the lack of consent from these sources to have their content scraped raises ethical questions about the process.