Google is being sued over its controversial “AI Overviews” feature in search results.
Education company Chegg says that the feature has had such a dramatic effect on the way the internet works that its traffic and revenue have been hit dramatically.
Google started rolling out its AI Overviews feature last year. Its aim is to use artificial intelligence to offer more specific responses to users’ queries, by finding the information they are looking for.
But they have proven controversial in a variety of ways. As well as being accused of presenting misinformation or jokes as authoritative material, some claim they are harming the websites from which they take their information, since they mean that users have less reason to click through and read them directly.
Those critics including online company Chegg, which this week filed an antitrust lawsuit that argued the feature is making it impossible for others to compete.
Google’ feature takes information from websites without giving them anything in return, the lawsuit argues. That will lead to a “hollowed-out information ecosystem of little use and unworthy of trust”, Chegg said.
Chegg said that the effect on its visitors and subscribers had been so dramatic that it was now being forced to consider being sold or taking itself private because of the financial problems that have resulted.
The feature violates an antitrust law that is intended to ensure that companies are not given too much power, Chegg argued. The law bans companies from selling one product on the condition of taking up another.
It is thought to be the first time that a company has filed such a lawsuit over the AI Overviews feature.
Google told Reuters that it sends “billions of clicks to sites across the web, and AI Overviews send traffic to a greater diversity of sites”, in response to the lawsuit.
