Learn about the potential harm to news publishers caused by Google’s AI Search tool, SGE

The year 2023 has seen rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), with various applications such as chatbots and tools for image generation and code interpretation. However, concerns have been raised about the negative aspects of AI, particularly the rise of deepfakes. Therefore, the EU AI Act has been introduced to regulate AI. Additionally, a recent report highlights the potential dangers of AI in the news sector, specifically Google’s AI Search tool, Search Generative Experience, which publishers believe could significantly impact website traffic.

Google SGE hinders traffic

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, the American magazine Atlantic has compiled a list of threats it faces with the help of generative artificial intelligence. And Google’s new AI search tool was spotted at the summit. For the uninitiated, Google Search Generative Experience (SGE) allows users to understand topics faster and gain more insights. Users can ask long questions with multiple options instead of having to break them into smaller parts. It also brings the opportunity to get suggested steps and even ask follow-up questions.

According to the report, about 40 percent of Atlantic’s traffic comes from web searches. It was found that in about 75% of searches, Google SGE would provide the complete answer to the user’s query, so they don’t have to scroll down. Thus, it would result in Atlantic losing the traffic it would have gained without SGE. The WSJ also revealed that around 40 percent of the traffic publishers get comes from searches, and with social media platforms like Meta and X saying they don’t share news, AI technology could be a doomsday.

Mathias Dopfner, chairman and CEO of Axel Springer, told the WSJ: “Artificial intelligence and big language models could destroy journalism and media brands as we know them.”

In defense, Google’s head of search told the WSJ: “Any attempt to evaluate the traffic impact of our SGE experiment is entirely speculative at this point, as we continue to develop the fast user experience and design, including how links are displayed, and we strive to closely monitor the data within our tests.”

However, it’s unlikely that Google will kill all media traffic because then it won’t have the data to train its AI models.