((Automated translation by Reuters, please see disclaimer https://bit.ly/rtrsauto))
(Added comment from Google)
The French competition watchdog said on Wednesday that it had imposed on Google
GOOGL.O 250 million euros ($271.73 million) for breaches of EU intellectual property rules in its dealings with media publishers, citing concerns over the company’s artificial intelligence service ‘business.
The watchdog said Google’s AI-powered Bard chatbot, since rebranded as Gemini, was trained on content from publishers and news agencies, without notifying them.
Google has agreed not to dispute the facts in the settlement procedure, the supervisory authority said, adding that the company also proposed a series of corrective measures to address certain shortcomings.
Google said it agreed to the settlement “because it’s time to move on,” adding “we want to focus on the broader goal of sustainable approaches to connecting people with quality content and collaboration.” constructive with French publishers”
The company said the fine was disproportionate and that the watchdog had not given sufficient consideration to its efforts “in an environment where it is very difficult to set a course because we cannot predict in which direction the wind will blow then”
The fine is linked to a copyright dispute in France over online content, a case sparked by complaints from some of the country’s biggest news outlets, including Agence France Presse (AFP).
The dispute seemed to have been resolved in 2022, when the American technology giant abandoned its appeal against a first fine of 500 million euros imposed following a vast investigation carried out by the Competition Authority.
However, in its statement on Wednesday, the watchdog said Google had violated the terms of four of the seven commitments agreed to under the deal, including conducting good faith negotiations with publishers and providing transparent information.
The watchdog notably cited Google’s AI chatbot, Bard, launching in 2023, which it said was trained on data from unspecified media outlets and news agencies, without the company notify them or the regulatory body.
“Subsequently, Google linked the use of the affected content by its artificial intelligence service to the display of protected content,” the watchdog said, adding that in doing so, Google hindered the ability of publishers and news agencies to negotiate fair prices.
This fine comes as many publishers and editors seek to limit the “scraping” – or automatic collection of data – by artificial intelligence services of their online content without their consent and without fair compensation.
The New York Times in 2023 sued Google rivals Microsoft MSFT.O and OpenAI, the creator of the popular artificial intelligence platform ChatGPT, accusing them of unauthorized use of millions of articles from the newspaper to help train conversation robots (chatbots).
“We – and others – need more clarity on who we pay for what,” Google said.
($1 = 0.9200 euros)