Google said it is working with The Associated Press to build a “feed of real-time information” into Gemini to make the Gemini chatbot app more of a one-stop shop.
Jafar Zaidi, Google’s vice president of global news partnerships, said the goal is to “further increase the usefulness of results” in the Gemini experience.
“As we develop new AI products and offerings, we identify specific types of information and data that help us improve products and services for people around the world,” Zaidi wrote in a blog post. . “This (new feed) will be especially helpful for users looking for up-to-date information.”
Zaidi did not say when this feature would be introduced to Gemini or whether it would be visible to users in all regions where the app is available.
Google, which has a long-standing partnership with The Associated Press, is just one of many AI companies that have sought to work with news organizations to improve the accuracy of their AI technology.
OpenAI has partnerships with publishers such as the Financial Times, Axel Springer, and News Corp., owner of the Wall Street Journal. Elsewhere, AI-powered search engine Perplexity has launched a program that allows publishers to earn incremental revenue when their content is referenced in results.
Some of these deals include a training component. Publishers like Condé Nast have agreed to allow AI vendors with whom they have licensing agreements to train AI models on their archives. The AI industry touts these arrangements primarily as a service to journalism, but they are also intended to protect AI companies from claims of copyright infringement.
In fact, in many cases, deals with publishers don’t result in any measurable improvements to AI companies’ products. A recent study by Columbia University’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism found that ChatGPT, OpenAI’s AI-powered chatbot, misquotes content even from publishers that have contracts with OpenAI. It was shown.
In any case, the dire situation in the news industry is likely to prompt more news organizations to secure whatever agreements they can.