The prisoner’s dilemma: Why UK publishers are signing Google AI deals

Beware of geeks bearing gifts, as Roman poet Virgil almost said.

The message being that presents from your enemy may contain a trap.

For several years now most major UK publishers have been receiving payments ranging from the hundreds of thousands to millions per year from Google in exchange for appearing on a confected platform called News Showcase.

These deals helped stave off the threat of Google being forced to compensate publishers for using their content (as has happened in Australia).

Now, instead of being offered money for nothing, the same publishers are being asked by Google to give access to all their content for AI training – and they are finding it difficult to say no.

Financial directors have got used to seeing that Google revenue line and if it disappears, cuts will have to be made elsewhere.

The mutation of Showcase deals into AI ones render a recent ruling from the Competition and Markets Authority, forcing Google to let publishers opt out of AI training without harming their position in search, moot.

In exchange for cash (and a little traffic) publishers are signing away the right to opt out of AI products whilst also agreeing not to sue Google or talk publicly about the deal (apart from perhaps via a jointly agreed press release).

The fear is that the long-term collective viability of the UK news business is being sacrificed for short-term individual expediency.

The deals last two years, by which time Google may have cemented its hold over the market for AI-generated answers and publishers’ collective bargaining position could be much weaker.

The era of traffic is over. The era of AI-generated answers has begun. There is no turning back, the user experience is just too damned convenient.

Publishers globally need to focus on striking a collective bargain that ensures fair payment for their crucial role feeding the AI beast, rather than piecemeal short-term deals designed to prop up yesterday’s business model.

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