Google’s AI licensing pilot pays publishers, but critics call it a fig leaf

Digiday’s Jessica Davies and Sara Guaglione report that Google is quietly scaling a Search Console-based “AI contribution pilot” that pays publishers only when their content “significantly” contributes to Gemini and AI Overviews responses.

Why it matters. Publishers who opt into the pilot risk undercutting their own future leverage, since Google can point to the program as evidence it already compensates publishers for AI use.

Signal from digiday.com · Jessica Davies, Sara Guaglione · read the original.

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