The ongoing feud between big tech and news publishers seems to have wider implications for the newsrooms across the world. With Google's new update on AI Search, the company announced how its AI agents will scan “blogs, news sites and social posts” to present crisp answers and quick summaries to users. Amid the issue, the question arises, what happens if readers stop checking the original content from the news sites and simply go with the AI-generated content? This will undoubtedly bring losses to the new outlets in India and across the world.
AI-powered search is fundamentally altering the traffic dynamics that have sustained digital news publishers, shifting the model from content discovery to direct in-platform consumption. Timesnownews.com spoke with experts to understand how such a move could impact India.
He stressed that the critical question is whether regulatory frameworks can keep pace with AI and evolve quickly enough to prevent market consolidation before policy clarity emerges. “As AI adoption accelerates, the long-term outcome will depend on the ability of policymakers to balance innovation with the sustainability of independent journalism,” added Ram.
While referencing Australia’s proposed measures that push big tech to compensate the local news outlets, Shweta Bansal, a technology lawyer, said, “Australia's NBI is a step in the right direction. India should not copy paste it in a hurry. The question is not whether there is a tax on platforms, but what exactly we are taxing them for.”
Bansal highlighted, “There are three very different kinds of value extraction – aggregation, algorithmic amplification and AI training and any Indian framework has to define ‘use’ with technical precision before defining a price. A poorly written law will either be circumvented in a week or litigated for a decade.”
Australia asked major tech giants like TikTok,Google and Metato strike deals with local news publishers or face a 2.25 per cent tax on local revenue as per its newly proposed News Bargaining Incentive. This move comes as news consumption is rapidly shifting to social media, where users depend heavily on their feeds rather than media outlets, increasing concerns around fair compensation. India’s Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) and the Indian Newspaper Society have often raised similar questions whether a similar path should be adopted.
As AI changes the way people find and read news, publishers around the world are facing a serious challenge that strong journalism alone cannot solve. There is only a small window left for governments to step in. If news organisations become too dependent on tech platforms and their revenues fall too far, no future payment system will be able to fully repair the damage. What is needed now is a clear and practical law that explains how AI companies use news content, ensures publishers are paid fairly, and keeps big tech accountable without slowing innovation.
GetLatest Newslive on Times Now along with Breaking News and Top Headlines fromTechnology Scienceand around the world.
Govind Choudhary is the Chief Copy Editor for Tech at Times Now with over five years of experience in the media industry. He covers consumer technolog...View More
Source: India Latest News, Breaking News Today, Top News Headlines | Times Now
