The European Commission has launched an antitrust investigation into Google’s use of online content for search results generated by AI and for videos uploaded to YouTube used to train AI.

The probe will assess whether Google is breaching EU competition rules by not appropriately compensating publishers or offering them the possibility to refuse the use of their content for AI-generated summaries without losing access to Google Search, the commission said.

“Indeed, many publishers depend on Google Search for user traffic, and they do not want to risk losing access to it,” a press release published on Tuesday said.

In addition, the commission will investigate Google’s use of videos uploaded on its own platform, YouTube, to train generative AI models without offering content creators appropriate compensation or the possibility to opt out.

The commission stressed that launching an investigation to assess whether Google may breach EU competition rules by abusing a dominant market position does not prejudge the outcome of the probe.

(dpa/NAN)