The publisher of Rolling Stone, Billboard, and Variety are taking Google to court, accusing the tech giant of misusing their journalism to fuel artificial intelligence tools.
Penske Media filed suit Friday in federal court in Washington, D.C., marking the first time a major U.S. publisher has challenged Google’s “AI Overviews,” the summaries that now appear at the top of search results. Penske argues the feature republishes its articles without consent, siphoning traffic away from its websites and cutting into ad and subscription revenue.
The company, which attracts more than 120 million monthly online visitors, said Google effectively forces publishers to allow their work to appear in AI summaries as a condition of being included in search results. Penske claims this practice leverages Google’s dominance in search, citing a court finding last year that the company controls nearly 90% of the U.S. market.
According to the lawsuit, about one in five Google searches linking to Penske outlets now show AI-generated summaries. The company said its affiliate revenue has dropped by more than a third since 2024 as traffic declined.
The case follows a similar lawsuit filed earlier this year by online education firm Chegg, which argued Google’s AI features erode demand for original content.
Google defended its tools over the weekend, saying AI Overviews improve the user experience and send traffic to a broader range of sites. The company said it would contest Penske’s claims, calling them meritless.
The lawsuit highlights growing tensions between publishers and AI developers. Other companies, including OpenAI, have signed licensing deals with outlets like News Corp and The Atlantic to use their journalism in training data. Google, whose Gemini chatbot competes directly with ChatGPT, has been slower to strike such agreements.
Source: CNN