Google is paying a handful of independent publishers five-figure sums to use an unreleased generative artificial intelligence tool to publish three stories per day.
Google reportedly began onboarding outlets in January, and gave them access to the tool in February.
Adweek reports, "As part of the agreement, the publishers are expected to use the suite of tools to produce a fixed volume of content for 12 months. In return, the news outlets receive a monthly stipend amounting to a five-figure sum annually, as well as the means to produce content relevant to their readership at no cost." Scoop: Google is paying independent publishers to test a suite of unreleased gen AI tools.
Publishers in the private program are expected to produce 3 articles a day using the platform. There is no requirement that the content be labeled.
For @Adweek: https://t.co/IuNzuJlMCe
— Mark Stenberg (@MarkStenberg3) February 27, 2024
Per the agreement, outlets must use the AI to publish three articles per day, one newsletter per week, and one marketing campaign per month, according to the report.
The program does not require outlets to label the stories as ai-generated.
Google claims this tool is meant to "help journalists" with their work, not replace them.
“In partnership with news publishers, especially smaller publishers, we’re in the early stages of exploring ideas to potentially provide AI-enabled tools to help journalists with their work,” a Google representative said in a statement to Adweek. “These tools are not intended to, and cannot, replace the essential role journalists have in reporting, creating and fact-checking their articles.”
The tool allows a publisher to summarize and aggregate reports from other outlets or government press releases as "new" articles.
“The larger point here is that Google is in legislative activity and antitrust enforcement globally for extracting revenue from the publishing world,” Digital Content Next CEO Jason Kint told the outlet. “Instead of giving up some of that revenue, it’s attacking the cost side for its long-tail members with the least bargaining power.”
Kint noted that the tool can only scrape other people's work and reword it, without adding anything that has not been reported elsewhere.
“I think this calls into question the mission of GNI,” Kint continued. “It’s hard to argue that stealing people’s work supports the mission of the news. This is not adding any new information to the mix.”
