Google Rolls Out AI-Generated Summaries in Discover Feed, Alarming Global Publishers
This shift comes amid broader efforts by media companies to integrate AI into their operations.
NEW YORK: As concerns mount over falling web traffic across the global publishing industry, Google has officially launched AI-generated summaries in its Discover feed — a move that could further impact already struggling news outlets.
Now live for some users in the United States on both iOS and Android, the update replaces traditional article headlines with brief AI-generated summaries. These summaries are displayed alongside logos of multiple news sources, and are intended, according to Google, to help users make quicker decisions about what to read.
However, media analysts and publishers warn that the feature could discourage users from clicking through to original articles altogether — exacerbating the growing trend of “zero-click” news consumption.
Speaking to TechCrunch, a Google spokesperson confirmed the rollout is not part of a test but an official launch, beginning with lifestyle content such as entertainment and sports. Each summary includes a disclaimer noting that it was “generated using AI, which can make mistakes.”
Yet the summaries often draw from multiple sources, raising questions around content attribution, intellectual property use, and how such aggregation may redirect traffic away from the original publishers.
In addition to summaries, Google is also experimenting with new Discover formats. Some articles now appear with AI-generated bullet points or are grouped with similar coverage, further diluting visibility for individual outlets. For example, an investigative piece by The Washington Post was accompanied by summarised takeaways, while political coverage was clustered into grouped stories.
This shift comes amid broader efforts by media companies to integrate AI into their operations. Outlets like The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Bloomberg are experimenting with their own AI tools. Startups like Particle are also offering AI-driven news exploration features.
Nevertheless, publishers remain wary of Google’s growing influence in controlling how users interact with the news. The launch of AI Overviews and similar tools has already led to a sharp increase in search queries that end without a single click to a source website.
Recent data from Similarweb underscores the trend: global search traffic dropped 15% year-over-year by June 2025, while news-related search queries resulting in no clicks rose from 56% in May 2024 to nearly 69% a year later. Meanwhile, organic traffic to news websites fell from 2.3 billion monthly visits in mid-2024 to under 1.7 billion in mid-2025.
To offset some of the impact, Google has introduced its Offerwall feature via Google Ad Manager, enabling publishers to monetise content through micropayments, newsletter signups, ad views, or surveys. However, critics argue the solution may be too late — especially as Discover, once a key mobile traffic driver, is also being reshaped by AI.
As AI increasingly dictates what content is seen and how it’s summarised, publishers fear they may lose both visibility and revenue — challenging the future of independent journalism in the digital age.
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