市場分析

US EdTech Firm Claims Google’s AI Previews Harm Content Ecosystem in Lawsuit

Amos Simanungkalit · 25 Feb15.7K 閱讀

Image Credit: Reuters

Chegg, an online education company, has filed a lawsuit against Google, claiming that the search engine’s use of artificial intelligence-generated overviews is harming original content creators and damaging the ability of publishers to compete.

According to Chegg, Google is using publishers' content to retain users on its platform, thereby eliminating financial incentives for creators. This, Chegg argues, will eventually lead to an "hollowed-out" information ecosystem that is unreliable and untrustworthy.

In the lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C., Chegg states that Google’s AI overviews have caused a significant drop in its web traffic and subscriber numbers. As a result, the company is now considering strategic alternatives, such as a potential sale or going private, according to Chegg’s CEO Nathan Schultz.

In response, Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda rejected the claims, describing them as unfounded. He argued that AI Overviews make Google Search more helpful and lead to more opportunities for content discovery, sending billions of clicks to various websites, which helps diversify site traffic.

Chegg’s stock has fallen by more than 98% from its peak in 2021, with the company announcing a layoff of 21% of its staff in November. Schultz emphasized that the lawsuit is not just about Chegg, but about the broader digital publishing industry, the future of internet search, and the negative impact on students who are losing access to quality, step-by-step learning in favor of low-quality, unverified AI-generated summaries.

The lawsuit alleges that Google is violating antitrust laws by forcing publishers to allow its AI features in exchange for search traffic, essentially reducing the visitors that would have gone to publishers' sites. Chegg argues that this behavior is unlawful, as it conditions the sale of one service (search results) on the provision of another (AI-generated overviews).

This lawsuit is the first where a company individually accuses Google of breaching antitrust laws through its AI overviews, although a similar case was brought by an Arkansas newspaper against Google on behalf of the news industry in 2023. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who previously ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly in online search, is overseeing the case. Google has said it plans to appeal the ruling and has requested the dismissal of the newspaper's case.