New data from Chartbeat suggests that “search” as a source of total traffic to major news publishers has remained stable over the last year. This appears to chime with a Google statement earlier this month downplaying the impact of AI Overviews and AI Mode on publisher referrals. However, this includes Google Discover – which has replaced search as the main source of Google traffic. Social media has however sharply declined as a source of publisher traffic in recent years, as has direct traffic.
Source: Publisher traffic sources: Google steady but social and direct referrals are down
The prospect of relying heavily on synthetic data hasn’t gone unnoticed by the creative industries. “I believe the main reason companies like OpenAI are having to rely more on synthetic data now is that they’ve run out of high-quality human created data to mine from the public facing internet,” says Reid Southern, a film concept artist and illustrator, adding, “It further distances them from any copyrighted materials they’ve trained on that could land them in hot water.”
While the music industry continues to grapple with questions around artificial intelligence and fair compensation, SourceAudio has positioned itself as an ethical bridge between AI companies seeking training data and rightsholders demanding fair payment. With 14 million tracks now opted into SourceAudio’s AI dataset licensing program, the firm has struck partnerships with companies includingElevenLabs, Musical AI, and Wondera.
