Google announced it will let websites exclude its material from artificial intelligence-powered search tools, a response to growing regulatory pushback over how tech companies handle web material, reported Business Insider.
United Kingdom competition officials had put forward rules giving publishers control over how their work appears in tools such as AI Overviews. Google warned that overly strict requirements could harm how its search features function.
Google contends that AI has powered its search results for years and historically linked users with useful information. Separating AI from conventional search tools, the company said, would make it harder for people to get high-quality answers to their questions.
For users, this fight will shape how they find information online going forward. Publishers fear that AI-generated summaries deliver answers without directing you to original sources, starving websites of the traffic that supports journalism and creative work.
The growth of AI also carries environmental weight. Training and running these systems demand tons of electricity and water to cool data centers. While AI can help optimize clean energy grids and reduce waste in some industries, its growing footprint drives up energy demand. Some experts worry this could slow progress toward environmental goals or push electricity bills higher for households and businesses alike.
Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince, whose company operates roughly 20% of websites globally, said the U.K. proposal falls short of expectations.
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"The CMA's recommendation today doesn't go far enough because it doesn't force Google to split search crawl from AI crawl," Prince told Business Insider. "Instead, it requires us all to trust that Google will not be evil when they build their unauditable black AI box."
Prince added that requiring Google to separate these functions would benefit competition. "Every company other than Google would support that because it fosters a healthy market," he said.
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