Publishers face a renewed threat from Google’s AI summaries as the technology rolls out in the tech giant’s Discover news feed within its smartphone search app.
The AI summaries have appeared within the app in the US, meaning that instead of seeing headlines from publications, users now see an AI-generated summary alongside logos of different publishers.
It was thought at first the feature may be a test but Google has confirmed it was an official launch. There is no date set yet for the UK.
Google Discover has become an important source of traffic and revenue for many publishers: the app recommends content to users on Android devices and in the iOS Google apps based on their searches and activities.
A new warning next to the AI-generated copy says: “Generated with AI, which can make mistakes”, along with small publisher logos which link out to their sites.
The move has been met with dismay by publishers, who claim that Google’s AI summaries are triggering a rise in “zero-click searches” where users do not go on to click through to websites because their query has been met in the search results.
Shelly Palmer, Professor of Advanced Media at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, wrote on Linkedin: “Google just confirmed what many publishers have been dreading.
“The feature will appear on iOS and Android in the US, with a focus on trending lifestyle topics like sports and entertainment. Translation: Google is starting with the content categories that drive the highest engagement and advertising revenue for publishers.
“The timing couldn’t be worse for publishers. In just one year, Google’s AI features have pushed the zero-click rate for news searches from slightly more than half to more than two-thirds. Organic traffic also declined, dropping from more than 2.3 billion visits at its peak in mid-2024 to fewer than 1.7 billion.
“Google Discover still remained a source for clicks, even as traffic from Google Search declined, but if the AI summaries roll out more broadly within the Google app, that will no longer be the case. Many of my publisher clients have clung to Discover as their last reliable traffic source from Google’s ecosystem. Oops.
“This isn’t accidental. Google is methodically training users to consume information without leaving Google’s properties. First came AI Overviews in search results, then AI Mode for conversational queries, and now AI summaries in Discover. Each step reduces the need for users to visit publisher websites while Google captures the value from their content.”
The move to add AI summaries to Discover follows the widespread introduction of AI Overviews in Google’s main search results last year, as well as Google’s new AI Mode, which replaces traditional search altogether with a ChatGPT-like interface, and which has launched in the US, but not yet in the UK.
Giselle Navarro of reviews site HouseFresh told Press Gazette that AI summaries “remove the incentive for searchers to browse the web”.
“From a publisher perspective, this change in user behaviour leads to a reduction in clicks and visits to our websites – even in cases where Google is regurgitating our information to craft their answer,” she said.
“Considering how many people see Google as a source of good information (after decades of search results that surfaced reputable sources), it is also likely to remove the incentive for people to fact-check the information they receive from Google’s chatbot.
“As publishers move their content behind paywalls to protect it from AI bots and monetise their dwindling traffic, the open web will become a collection of walled gardens.”
Navarro said her own research with reviews also shows that searches via AI Mode and AI summaries throw up misleading answers, including recommending products that do not exist or are no longer on sale.
Navarro said: “My research shows that AI Mode is experiencing the same issues AI Overviews experiences when it comes to product recommendations: the AI blindly regurgitates outdated, unreliable information, and in doing so, it is leading consumers to products they will regret buying.”
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