The European Union continues to increase its strict oversight of technology giants. Ignoring criticism from the tech elite, the European Commission has taken action to address competition concerns. A comprehensive EU investigation into Google has been officially launched, focusing on the tech giant’s use of unauthorized content from websites to generate AI responses.

What does the EU investigation cover?

The Commission’s focus is on Google’s “AI Summaries” and “AI Mode” displayed above its search results. Allegedly, the company uses content from web publishers to generate these summaries without paying them. Furthermore, publishers are threatened with losing visibility in Google Search results if they don’t allow their content to be used. The EU describes this as “unfair terms for publishers and content creators.”

The investigation is not limited to text-based content. How Google uses YouTube videos to generate AI responses is also under scrutiny. The company uses YouTube data to train its own AI models while preventing rival AI companies from accessing this data. EU officials are investigating whether Google is harming competition in the AI ​​market by giving preferential treatment to its own platforms.

This investigation comes at a time when AI companies are facing pressure regarding copyright issues. As you may recall, AI search engines like Perplexity have been sued by giant publishers such as the New York Times and News Corp. However, the EU’s move aims to prevent Google from dominating a large part of the internet and establishing an unfair data dominance over its competitors.

So, do you think this Google EU investigation will change the balance in digital publishing? Will content creators be able to get their rights? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!