Google is facing a lawsuit from Penske Media (PMC) for allegedly using news publishers’ content to create AI summaries that harm their businesses. This is the first lawsuit targeting Google and Alphabet for showing AI-generated summaries in search, sparking concerns about copyright issues.

Since launching AI Overviews, Google has been criticized for threatening publishers’ business models by using their content to create accurate AI summaries. The lawsuit accuses Google of leveraging its monopoly to coerce PMC into allowing the use of PMC’s content for AI Overviews and training AI models.

Google defends its AI Overviews, claiming they make search more helpful and drive traffic to a variety of sites. The lawsuit argues that Google is requiring publishers like PMC to provide content for other uses that cannibalize search referrals, leading to significant declines in clicks and revenue for publishers.

Despite Google’s defense, the lawsuit states that Penske has seen a decrease in Google search referral traffic since the introduction of AI Overviews, impacting ad revenue, subscriptions, and affiliate revenue. Google has not provided credible information on the impact of AI Overviews on search referral traffic, leading to concerns about the effects on publishers.

This lawsuit comes after Google avoided a breakup in an antitrust trial, where a federal judge ruled the company had acted illegally to maintain a monopoly in online search. However, the judge did not order the breakup of Google’s businesses, citing increasing competition in AI as a factor in the decision.

Read more at Yahoo Finance: Rolling Stone owner Penske Media sues Google over AI summaries