Cloudflare, a web infrastructure company, has updated millions of websites’ robots.txt files in an effort to force Google to change how it crawls them to fuel its AI products and initiatives. There have been lawsuits, efforts to kick-start new marketplaces to ensure compensation, and more—but few companies have the kind of leverage Cloudflare does. Its products and services back something close to 20 percent of the web, and thus a significant slice of the websites that show up on search results pages or that fuel large language models.
Source: Inside the web infrastructure revolt over Google’s AI Overviews
Italian news publishers are calling for an investigation into Google’s AI Overviews, arguing that the search engine’s AI-generated summaries feature is a “traffic killer” that threatens their survival. FIEG, the Italian federation of newspaper publishers, said it has submitted a formal complaint to Agcom, Italy’s communications watchdog. Similar complaints have been filed in other EU countries.
As machine-made books flood online marketplaces, a new UK initiative is introducing an Organic Literature stamp to help readers identify books created by real authors. The scheme will involve Organic Literature stamps being placed on books written by humans, with only limited AI use permitted for tasks such as formatting or idea generation.
Hollywood’s relationship with Washington is at a crossroads, and its stars are turning to K Street A-listers for cover. The dizzying pace of new developments coming out of Washington right now, combined with the deeply personal stakes of issues like generative AI and the potential censorship of administration critics, are fueling a heightened interest in deploying influence peddlers to make their stand with the Trump administration and Congress.
MetaComet, a royalty management software provider serving nearly 200 publishers globally, is launching MetaComet Rights, a new rights management platform that marks the company’s first major product expansion beyond its core royalties business in its 25-year history. The platform represents a strategic shift for MetaComet, which co-founder David Marlin said has spent the past year building integrations and partnerships after completing a multi-year rebuild of its legacy systems.