EU opens investigation into Google’s use of online content for AI models | Google

The EU has launched an investigation to assess whether Google is violating European competition rules in its use of online content from publishers and YouTube creators for artificial intelligence purposes.

The European Commission said on Tuesday it would examine whether the US tech company owned by Alphabet, which runs the Gemini AI model, put rival AI owners at a “disadvantage”.

“The investigation will specifically examine whether Google distorts competition by imposing unfair terms and conditions on publishers and content creators or by disadvantaging developers of rival artificial intelligence models by granting itself privileged access to such content,” the commission said.

He expressed concern that Google may have used web publishers’ content to create AI-powered services on search results pages without paying appropriate compensation to publishers and offering them the ability to opt out of such use of their content.

The commission also said it was concerned about whether Google was using content uploaded to YouTube to train its own generative AI models without offering compensation or repudiation to creators.

“Creators who upload videos to YouTube have an obligation to allow Google to use their data for different purposes, including the training of generative artificial intelligence models,” the commission said.

It was stated that Google does not pay YouTube creators for their content and does not allow them to upload their content to YouTube without allowing Google to use such data. The Commission noted that rival AI model developers were prohibited from using YouTube content to train their own AI models due to YouTube policies.

Google-owned YouTube says its terms and conditions allow Google to use creators’ work to build artificial intelligence models. In September, YouTube said: “We use content uploaded to YouTube to improve the product experience for creators and viewers across YouTube and Google, including through applications of machine learning and artificial intelligence.”

EU competition chief Teresa Ribera said: “AI is delivering remarkable innovations and many benefits for people and businesses across Europe, but this progress cannot come at the expense of the principles at the heart of our societies.”

A Google spokesperson said: “This complaint risks stifling innovation in a market that is more competitive than ever.

“Europeans deserve to benefit from the latest technologies, and we will continue to work closely with the news and creative industries as we transition into the age of artificial intelligence.”

The EU’s investigation is the latest in a series of challenges faced by major US tech companies in recent years.

In September, EU regulators fined Google nearly €3 billion (£2.6 billion), arguing that it favored its own digital advertising services over rivals. Donald Trump said the sentence was “discriminatory.”

Elon Musk’s social media company X, formerly known as Twitter, was fined €120 million by EU technology regulators last week for violating online content rules. The violations included the EU’s “deceptive” blue check mark given to users and a lack of transparency in the platform’s advertising.

The penalty was also criticized by US officials, including US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who wrote in X that the penalty was “an attack by foreign governments on all American technology platforms and the American people.”

The European Commission launched an investigation into Meta earlier this year over the rollout of artificial intelligence features on messaging platform WhatsApp. Last year, Meta was fined €798 million for malicious practices that benefited Facebook Marketplace.

In 2024, Apple lost its fight against an order by EU competition regulators to pay Ireland €13 billion in back taxes.

Last month, the president of Google’s parent company said people shouldn’t “blindly trust” everything AI tools tell them.

Sundar Pichai, Alphabet’s CEO, said AI models were “prone to errors” and urged people to use them in conjunction with other tools. He also warned that if the AI ​​bubble bursts, no company will be immune.

Reuters contributed to this report