‘People’ Magazine CEO Slams Google as ‘Worst’ AI Content Theft

Neil Vogel, CEO of People Inc, has criticized Google for being the “worst” offender when it comes to stealing content to train its AI tools, reigniting a long-standing feud between the tech giant and the media industry.

Fortune reports that twenty years after Google became the dominant search engine, the company finds itself once again at odds with the media industry. Neil Vogel, CEO of People Inc — which publishes People and Food & Wine among other publications — has called out Google for being the “worst” offender in using copyrighted content without compensation to train its AI tools. This accusation echoes the complaints made by book publishers and music studios back in the early 2000s when Google first rose to prominence.

The issue at hand is the use of copyrighted material, such as articles, images, and videos, to train AI algorithms. These algorithms are then used to power various Google services, including search results, language translation, and content recommendation systems. Media companies argue that Google is unfairly benefiting from their intellectual property without providing adequate compensation or attribution.

Vogel’s criticism highlights the growing tension between content creators and tech companies as AI becomes increasingly sophisticated and integrated into everyday products and services. Media organizations say they invest significant resources in producing high-quality content, only to see it harvested by AI systems without proper recognition or financial compensation.

This is not the first time Google has faced backlash from the media industry. In the early days of its search engine, publishers accused the company of enabling copyright infringement by displaying snippets of their content in search results. Google eventually reached agreements with many publishers, allowing it to display limited portions of their content in exchange for driving traffic to their websites.

However, the current situation with AI training presents a new challenge. Unlike search results, which direct users to the original content, AI algorithms absorb and repurpose the content internally, making it difficult for media companies to track and monetize their intellectual property.

Breitbart News previously reported on a study demonstrating the massive drop in web traffic Google AI can cause:

According to the study, a website that previously ranked first in search results could experience a staggering 79 percent drop in traffic for that particular query if the results appear below an AI overview. This alarming trend has raised concerns among corporate media companies, who are now grappling with what some consider an existential threat to their business model.

The research also highlighted that links to Google’s YouTube were more prominently featured compared to the standard search result system. This finding has been submitted as part of a legal complaint to the UK’s competition watchdog, the Competition and Markets Authority, regarding the impact of Google AI Overviews on the news industry.

Other AI giants face challenges to their practices of using copyrighted works. Anthropic AI recently settled a lawsuit with authors that could have resulted in $1 trillion in damages if it went to trial.