• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, February 27, 2024

Google is testing an AI platform, working with publishers who have signed on to provide a certain volume of content each month.

The publishers will receive financial incentives totaling five figures per year, according to a report in AdWeek.  

Details about the tests were limited at deadline. But the goal apparently is to test—and enable publishers to explore—the new technologies.

AI can be useful in writing, research and personalization, observers point out. 

Indeed, the AI collaboration between Google and publishers “could signal the beginning of a new era in content creation and consumption,” BNN writes. The partnership also shows Google’s “dedication to investing in new technologies," it adds. 

Google has had some tense relations with the publishing industry. 

For example, Gannett filed an anti-trust suit last year, charging that Google is forcing publishers to sell ad space to it at depressed prices.  

And, Helena World Chronicle LLC, an Arkansas publisher, sued Google last year, alleging it had created a “monopoly broth.”  

This new program could help mitigate any hard feelings that exist in the field, while leading publishers to a more lucrative future. At least that’s the hope. 

There was no word on which publishers are participating. Presumably, none of the litigants are involved.