A win for publishers, EU bending privacy rules, and Big Tech faces the music down under

Sounds of silence, crowded newsrooms and empty desks, bots writing bylines, and LA's short supply of journalists - all in this week's Content Aware.

Published: 15:34, 20 November 2025

Corbidge comments on... words from Google both harsh and sweet
Voices from Google often bring us damning news, but some can be filled with optimism and hope. Which do we listen to? Well, the ones that control traffic and income, we suppose. Our interpreter in chief Rob watches Ricky Sutton's great talks with one of the pro-publishing people in Google, and wonders what a Goog and publishing Alliance might look like - in a dream.
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Publishers 1, Cohere 0
14 publishers including Conde Nast, The Atlantic, Forbes, The Guardian, and Business Insider have cleared the first hurdle in their copyright battle with AI firm Cohere, after defence attempts to end the case were thrown out by a judge. With numerous examples of Cohere reproducing near-verbatim copies of publisher work, ignoring cease-and-desist requests, and bulldozing past robots.txt instruction, the court believes there is enough for a jury to dig into. Publishers believe a win would be a big step towards preventing AI companies from treating newsrooms like free buffets.
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Google's EU dodge
In response to a recent EU's ad tech ruling asking Google how it would break itself up, the firm has outlined a few product tweaks in place of anything which changes the current shape of the ad market businesses under its control. Throwing a bit of technical paint at the issue hasn't really impressed critics and publishers, who argue that such "fixes" have done nothing over the years but strengthen Google's grip on the global ad market. It feels like everyone is waiting for the US courts to decide how Google should split its ad empire.
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Learning the hard way
Things you don't want to read from an autonomous AI agent tinkering around with your company's central database: "I deleted the entire database without permission. This was a catastrophic failure on my part.” Ah. Jason Lemkin's autonomous agent experience is highlighted in a report on rogue agents doing weird things with customer data, security, and other things your insurance company worries about.
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Censorship? Deleted
AI researchers aren't shy of "acquiring" content to train models - nor taking other models too, and transforming them. A Spanish quantum-AI team has carved DeepSeek R1 down to half its size, and removed built-in censorship the original creators were obliged to build in. Where there is a will, there is a way, even when it comes with state-aligned guardrails.
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Europe's regulatory refresh
As described last week, Brussels seems to be trying to tame its own regulatory fervour in favour of encouraging AI development, with some mooted oversight rules conveniently delayed again. As many in and outside of the AI industry applaud the delays, watchdogs and critics call it the EU's biggest retreat on digital rights ever. Now it's on the Parliament and member states to make clear what direction matters more.
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Supercharging publishing in the DACH region
One for our (many!) readers in Germany, Austria, Switzerland: everyone's favourite headless CMS Glide is teaming up with regional powerhouse jambit to spread excellence to more publishing and media brands in DACH region and beyond. With jambit's 20+ years of media wizardry and Glide's cloud native, API-first muscle, content goes faster, workflows get smoother, and audiences get more engaged. Local guidance, quicker launches, and smarter daily ops? Check, check, und abhaken.
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Which? aims at Apple
UK consumer rights title Which? is stress testing the Apple walled garden today, after initiating a £3bn collective claim for some 40m UK iPhone and iPad users who it claims were railroaded into using iCloud. Any iCloud user since 2015 could be automatically in line for a payout if the case passes a Competition Appeal Tribunal currently taking place, with Which? hoping the action isn't stalled on technical grounds before being aired in court. Apple says users had ample choice elsewhere; the action will decide "But did they really?".
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OpenAI's privacy play falls flat
OpenAI is using privacy concerns as an excuse to try and shield user chats from its New York Timers court case - even though the chats in question would be anonymised. Setting that aside, the bigger concern for OpenAI seems to be doing their utmost to not flag up to users that, err, yes, their chats are stored and can be accessed. Arguably, that should have been clear after they started appearing in Google search and Google analytic reports.
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Google hits  ≠ AI hits
It seems that being a Google heavyweight doesn't automatically make you a star in the AI world. Perplexity sticks to citing the same domains more often, keeping SEO hopefuls somewhat happy, while ChatGPT and Gemini are a bit pickier and more selective, and might give your top-ranking sites nothing more than a grunt of acknowledgement. LLMs are playing by their own rules, and Google glory doesn't always mean AI fame.
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From byline to botline
Pakistan's Dawn newspaper accidentally allowed ChatGPT a bit too close to the publishing process in news story, leaving the chatbot's own helpful notes in print. Even though the newspaper has since scrubbed the AI artefacts, issued an editor's note, and launched an internal review, social media had a field day. When they say AI is making headlines, this isn't what they meant.
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Thousand headlines, not enough journalists
Even though Los Angeles has over 100 local news outlets, that still only equates to 3.6 journalists per 100,000 people. Is that a lot or a little? Depends on the people and the products. The L.A. Times is struggling, with layoffs and lost revenue piling up, while startups such as The LA Local, LA Public Press, and SFGate's The Southland are hustling to cover the city's gaps. All of them are trying to patch a news ecosystem, some focusing on neighbourhoods, some chasing young readers online, while the ecosystem itself is bursting with ideas but starving for manpower. Nieman Lab shares more insight about a city that has plenty headlines, but not enough people to chase them.
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Google's meta rewrite flop
Google's latest attempt at rewriting meta descriptions has left even the most patient webmasters scratching their heads. Let's just say, the word "confused" doesn't begin to cover it.
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Australia cracks the whip on Big Tech
Australia is making it clear, tech giants aren't entitled to a free ride on local news. Google, Meta, and TikTok face a 2.25% revenue levy which they can avoid by cutting a deal with publishers. The government has coined this a News Bargaining Incentive, but "pay up or face the consequences" is also appropriate. EU regulators are also eyeing a similar plan.
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McCartney strikes a silent note
Paul McCartney has dropped a mostly silent track, think tape hiss, clatters, and similar, creating some sort of manifesto for copyright. Supported by colleagues such as Kate Bush, Hans Zimmer, and Sam Fender, the anti-AI album is urging the UK government to make sure AI doesn't get a free pass on their livelihood, music. Legislations won't land until 2026, if they ever do, but the message is important: if AI companies are allowed to steal art, then the artist might just create... nothing.
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