UK Imposes Legal Guardrails on Google's AI Search; Google Complies

The U.K. has just imposed legal guardrails on Google’s AI search onslaught. On Wednesday, Google announced compliance with the U.K.’s regulatory requirements, which state that the tech giant must offer publishers a way to opt out of being aggregated into AI search.

To opt out, publishers will be able to use a new toggle in Google’s Search Console, a free service that allows website owners to manage their web presence in Google’s search results.

Once opted out, the publisher’s site will not be shown in Google’s generative AI Search features, like AI Overviews, AI Mode, or AI Overviews in Discover. (Google, of course, makes a point to note in the same announcement that its AI Overviews now have over 2.5 billion monthly active users, and its AI Mode has surpassed one billion monthly users.)

The tech giant says it will initially test the opt-out option with a subset of U.K. publishers before rolling it out globally.

The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) calls the move to put publishers back in control of how their content is used a “world first,” and points out that it will put publishers, including news organizations, into a stronger position to negotiate content deals with Google for use of their content in AI features.

The CMA had first designated Google as having “strategic market status” last October, laying the groundwork for future regulations. In January, it pushed Google to give website publishers a choice as to whether their content is aggregated into AI search features or used to train standalone AI models.

Alongside the opt-out toggle, Google will also now be required to make sure publisher content in AI features is properly attributed, using clear links. Google suggested that it’s complying with this as well, noting that it had recently increased the number of inline links directly within its AI responses, and added website previews to encourage users to click through.

Google notes that a website’s decision to opt out of generative AI search features will not be used as a ranking signal for traditional Google search.

The company, however, will present new metrics in its Search Console to hopefully sway publishers who could be considering opting out, including impression metrics and other information about which of their pages appear in AI responses, and in which countries. More metrics will be added over time, Google said.