Google is testing AI-powered article summaries on participating publishers’ Google News pages as part of a new pilot program, the search giant announced Wednesday.
News publishers participating in the pilot program include Der Spiegel, El País, Folha, Infobae, Kompas, The Guardian, The Times of India, The Washington Examiner, and The Washington Post.
The purpose of the new commercial partnership program is to “explore how AI can further drive audience engagement,” Google said in a blog post. As part of its new AI pilot program, the company will work with publishers to experiment with new features in Google News.
By adding AI-powered article summaries, Google says users can get more context before clicking through to read an article. While AI-generated summaries may lead to fewer clicks on news articles, publications that participate in the commercial pilot program will receive payments directly from Google, helping to offset any potential loss in traffic to their sites.
AI-powered article summaries will only appear on participating publications’ Google News pages and will not appear elsewhere in Google News or Search.
This isn’t the first time Google has introduced AI summaries to news. In July, the company introduced AI summarization to Discover, the main news feed within Google’s search app. With this change, users no longer see any major publication headlines in their feed. Instead, you’ll see multiple news publisher logos in the top left corner, followed by an AI-generated summary citing those sources.
Google is also experimenting with audio briefings for people who prefer to listen to the news rather than read it as part of a new pilot program.
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The company says these features include clear attribution and links to articles.
Additionally, Google has partnered with organizations such as Estadão, Antara, Yonhap, and Associated Press to embed real-time information into the Gemini app to enhance results.
“As the way people consume information evolves, we will continue to improve our products for people around the world and engage with feedback from stakeholders across our ecosystem,” Google wrote in a blog post. “We’re working with websites and creators of all sizes on this effort, from major news publishers to emerging startups.”
As part of Google’s Wednesday announcement, the company announced that its “Preferred Sources” feature will launch globally in August, first in the U.S. and India. This feature allows users to select their favorite news sites and blogs to appear in the Top Stories section of Google search results.
The feature will be available to English users around the world within the next few days, and Google plans to roll it out to all supported languages early next year.
In the coming weeks, Google will highlight links from news subscriptions, display them in a dedicated carousel in the Gemini app, and also add AI Overview and AI Mode.
While these features make it easier for users to access news from their preferred sources, they also run the risk of trapping users in ideological bubbles and limiting their exposure to a variety of viewpoints.
Google also announced that it will increase the number of inline links in AI mode. Additionally, we’re introducing “introducing context” for embedded links. This is a short explanation explaining why the link is useful for exploration.
