Google’s Data Use For AI: The EU launches a significant antitrust investigation into Google’s use of data for artificial intelligence
Google’s Data Use For AI: Once again, Google is under scrutiny from European authorities. The search giant’s use of internet material to train and run artificial intelligence systems has prompted the European Union to launch a formal probe into the company. The central question of the inquiry is whether Google has unjustly utilized its hegemony in search and video to support its own AI products while restricting publishers and artists by making it difficult for them to transfer material across platforms or earn money from other sources.
What is being looked at by the EU?
The European Commission claims that Google’s more recent AI features, such as AI Overviews and AI Mode in Search, could be exploiting information from news publishers and websites without the required permission or payment. Regulators are investigating whether content producers have significant influence over how their work is utilized for AI training and if opting out results in a decrease in Google Search visibility.
What industry watchers call “Google Zero” is a major problem here. That is in a future when Google uses AI to provide straight answers to queries without requiring users to visit other websites. It can cause a sharp drop in traffic, ad revenue, and overall significance for publications.
Examining YouTube and AI Training
YouTube is also underinvestigated. The Commission is investigating procedures that allegedly let Google utilize user-uploaded movies to train its AI models while preventing other AI firms from using the same material. If verified, this would be seen as using platform dominance to prevent rivals from accessing important training resources.
A straightforward question is at the heart of the case: may publishers and content producers restrict how their work is fed into Google’s AI algorithms without suffering consequences in terms of discoverability or rankings?
The Significance of This for Google
Although no timeline for its conclusion has been provided, the EU has acknowledged the significance of this issue. The penalties might be severe if Google is judged to have broken EU competition rules. Penalties under European legislation may reach 10% of worldwide yearly income, or around $35 billion based on Alphabet’s 2024 profits.
According to the Commission’s statement, Google’s actions may go against EU law’s prohibition on abusing a dominant market position if they are established.
Google’s AI-powered future is directly at the center of our study. It might spell the difference between AI being a one-way street or a shared environment for publishers and producers.