Generative AI tools are causing a significant drop in website traffic for news and book publishers, threatening their business models and the future of journalism. In an article for The Atlantic, author Alex Reisner reports that AI chatbots and search features keep users on their own platforms by summarizing content from other websites.
This development poses a major challenge to media outlets. A study found that Google’s AI Overviews, which display AI-generated summaries above search results, have already cut traffic to publisher websites by more than 34 percent. Tech companies train their AI models on vast amounts of publisher content, often without permission or adequate compensation. Publishers create the value, while AI companies capture the audience and potential revenue.
Media companies are responding with lawsuits and by negotiating licensing deals with AI firms. However, Reisner notes that publishers have little leverage in these negotiations. The revenue from such deals is reportedly modest and does not compensate for the significant loss in readership. Some tech leaders envision a future where they work directly with individual creators, bypassing established institutions. This could leave the media industry, particularly resource-intensive investigative journalism, without a sustainable financial model.