Google Allegedly Compensating Publishers Thousands to Utilize AI for Story Creation

Google is establishing partnerships with various publishers to leverage generative AI tools for story production, as reported by Adweek. These agreements, reportedly valued in the tens of thousands of dollars annually, are part of the Google News Initiative (GNI), a program focused on funding media literacy, fact-checking, and resources for newsrooms. This foray into generative AI for publishing marks a significant and potentially controversial shift for the tech giant.

The initiative primarily targets a select group of smaller publishers. According to Adweek, the beta tools enable publishers with limited resources to efficiently create aggregated content by indexing and summarizing reports from external sources, such as government agencies and nearby news outlets.

In response to concerns, a Google spokesperson clarified that the tools are not intended to "re-publish" content from other publications. They emphasized that the experimental tools aim to assist small, local publishers in delivering high-quality journalism using factual information from public data sources, while allowing publishers to retain full editorial control over their published content.

While the compensation details for publishers remain unclear, Adweek suggests it involves a “five-figure sum" annually. In return, participating organizations are expected to publish at least three articles daily, along with a weekly newsletter and a monthly marketing campaign using these AI tools.

Notably, publishers in this program are not obligated to disclose their utilization of AI, and the websites providing aggregated content are not informed that their material is being transformed into AI-generated articles elsewhere. The AI-generated content employs a color-coded system to denote the reliability of each text section, aiding human editors in their review process.

Google has stated it is in the initial stages of exploring AI tools designed to support journalists, asserting that these tools are not meant to replace the vital roles that journalists play in reporting, content creation, and fact-checking.

While the motivations behind Google's initiative remain unclear, it resembles past strategies by tech companies, such as Facebook's agreements with publishers for live video content in 2016. Those deals ended after Facebook misjudged view counts, leading to major shifts in the media landscape and job losses for numerous journalists.

The GNI program, although smaller in scale than Facebook's previous efforts, will likely invite scrutiny regarding the application of generative AI by publishers. Several publications, including CNET and Sports Illustrated, have faced backlash for attempting to attribute AI-generated articles to human authors.