Google ordered to make changes to AI search summaries by U.K.

The Google logo is seen outside a building housing Google offices in Beijing on February 4, 2025. Photo by GREG BAKER /AFP via Getty Images

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Alphabet Inc.’s Google must make changes to its artificial intelligence generated search summaries after the UK’s antitrust watchdog ordered it to give publishers more control over how their content is used.

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The Competition and Markets Authority said that the “world first” move against Google would give publishers the chance to block their content from being used to power AI features in search.

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“This will put publishers, like news organizations, in a stronger position to negotiate content deals with Google,” the CMA said on Wednesday.

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The decision comes as Google faces increasing challenges to its search business from AI chatbots, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT, that are rapidly changing how users engage with digital content.

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In response, Google is pushing its Gemini app and rapidly overhauling its famous search engine, integrating AI agents into a variety of queries.

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The CMA will “actively monitor” the changes announced by Google last month, the watchdog said in its decision. “We will be announcing further action in relation to Google’s search business in the coming weeks,” the CMA’s chief executive officer Sarah Cardell said in a statement.

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Google must also allow publishers to control the use of their content for training AI services and must not retaliate against publishers that use those controls, according to the CMA’s decision.

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Google has nine months to implement all the changes imposed by the CMA.

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Google will immediately begin testing new changes to allow “a subset of website owners” in the UK to manage how their links and content appear in generative AI search features before rolling them out globally, Mrinalini Loew, general manager at Google Search Ecosystem, said in response.

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“We’re also actively listening to feedback from publishers and creators, and engaging with regulators like the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority to ensure website owners have the right tools as user preferences evolve,” Loew said in a blog post.

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The conduct requirements follow the CMA’s decision to designate Google with having so-called strategic market status in search and online advertising business, which gave the watchdog power to demand information and conduct change. The designation does not mean the company acted anti-competitively.

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As part of the decision, Google must also publish how search content is used by its generative AI, provide publishers with metrics on user engagement with their content in generative AI features and attribute that content clearly.

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—With assistance from Mark Bergen.

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