Google's early attempt to pay websites for AI answers is struggling

What happened

Google's early attempt to pay websites for AI answers is struggling, according to Ars Technica. Many sites see just one-tenth of one percent of their advertising revenue from AI payments. Google's shift to AI-powered search has upended the way the world's largest search engine generates web traffic, rankling large and small publishers alike. Google is an Internet and software company based in Mountain View, and its products and services include Google Search.

In recent months, the company has experimented with paying publishers when their content appears in AI answers, but a new report claims the payouts in this pilot program are miniscule. That has publishers in the program, as well as those watching from the sidelines, feeling skeptical.

According to The Information , Google has admitted about 100 publishers to the AI contribution pilot. The pitch is that websites can get payments from Google when their content materially contributes to Gemini-powered search results like an AI Overview.