Following a ruling from UK regulators, Google plans to allow website owners to opt out of appearing in AI searches, and it’s also agreed to add clearer attributions and links to sources in its AI overviews.
Google announced it will begin testing a new Search Console setting that allows website owners to opt out of having their content used in AI-generated search features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode, while remaining eligible to appear in traditional search results, as Engadget reports. The move follows a ruling by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority requiring the company to give publishers more control over how their content is used in AI products.
According to Ars Technica, the CMA also ordered Google to provide clearer attribution and links to publishers within AI-generated search results and barred the company from penalizing sites that choose to opt out. The agency said the changes are intended to give publishers, particularly news organizations, greater leverage over how their content is used, amid complaints that AI summaries have reduced referral traffic and advertising revenue.
Sarah Cardell, the CMA’s chief executive, told the Guardian, “It is crucial that content publishers, including news organisations, have appropriate bargaining power over how their content is used.”
Google said the opt-out setting will initially be tested with a small group of UK website owners before expanding globally. The company is also adding new Search Console reporting tools showing which pages appear in AI-generated responses and where those results are being displayed.
Regulators have reportedly given Google nine months to fully comply with the new requirements, though some changes are expected to arrive sooner.
Related: Google Scales Back 'AI Overviews,' Admits the AI Has Been Getting Things Wrong Image: Cheng Xin/Getty Images