A group of Democratic senators is calling on the FTC and Department of Justice to investigate whether AI tools that summarize and repeat online content, such as news and recipes, constitute anticompetitive behavior.
In a letter to government agencies, senators led by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) explained their position that the latest AI features are leaving creators and publishers down.
At a time when news organizations are experiencing unprecedented consolidation and layoffs, “major online platforms like Google and Meta generate billions of dollars in advertising revenue annually from news and original content created by others. New generative AI capabilities threaten to exacerbate these problems.”
The letter continues:
While links in traditional search results or news feeds might direct users to publishers’ websites, AI-generated summaries keep users on the original search platform, where only that platform can profit from their attention through advertising and data collection. […] Additionally, some generative AI features misappropriate third-party content and disguise it as new content generated by the platform's AI.
Publishers who want to avoid having their content summarized in the form of AI-generated search results have no choice but to opt out of search indexing altogether, resulting in a significant drop in referral traffic. This means that these tools potentially pit content creators against each other, with no way to profit from AI-generated content created using their original content. This raises significant competitive concerns in the online marketplace for content and advertising revenue.
Essentially, the senators are saying that a few large companies control the market for monetizing original content through advertising, and that those companies are rigging that market in their favor. Either agree to have your articles, recipes, stories, and podcast transcripts indexed and used as raw material for the AI, or you'll be left out of the loop.
The letter also asks the FTC and DOJ to investigate whether these new practices constitute “exclusionary practices or unfair competitive practices in violation of the antitrust laws.”
This is obviously a serious issue that affects the media, but the FTC may have some heavy lifting here. AI summarization of web content could provide a very unfair advantage, but there are a lot of power dynamics between business and media, and the bar for anticompetitive behavior is pretty high.
For example, in this case, it must be shown that the AI manufacturer has overwhelming market power and is using that power in ways that are expressly prohibited by law – unfair and unethical, yet entirely legal.
But given that the FTC has already taken a hard line on these issues, Senator Klobuchar and her colleagues are likely lecturing their allies as a prelude to taking action themselves. Senator Klobuchar herself has had a particular eye on journalism and local newspapers, introducing legislation last year aimed at empowering the supply side in news licensing negotiations and giving news publishers a bit more leverage when it comes to getting Google and others to pay for their content.
Fast forward a year, and the concerns of 2022 and early 2023 look quaint. Many argue that the same companies accused of manipulating content providers are now circumventing the entire market by feeding content to an AI that creates summaries.
Calling for regulators to crack down on unwanted industry behavior is part of the paper trail that lawmakers leave behind when they try to enact legislation. If the FTC and DOJ decide they can't act, the signatories of this letter are empowered to propose new legislation to allow these agencies to act. Last year's paper retention bill didn't get much done, but a new bill tied to fears of AI domination may do better. This will no doubt be a good talking point this election cycle.
The letter was co-signed by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island), Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois), Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) and Tina Smith (D-Minn.).