Click-to-cancelled, robo-parrots, and the Publishers vs Google forever war

BRICS unites over AI, AI chicanery in academia, and Chrome's newest enemy - all in this week's Content Aware.

Published: 15:31, 10 July 2025

Corbidge comments on... searching times for Google 
Google's latest travails include a gaggle of legal challenges from publishers, mounting regulatory scrutiny, the threat of AI slop poisoning its own well, and a flock of challenges to product offerings from faster-moving rivals. Is the Google goose about to be cooked, or are we getting in a flap about nothing? Our chief roaster Rob has a gander.
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"Click-to-cancel" blocked by smallprint
The FTC's "click to cancel" rule, designed to help US consumers avoid tortuous subscription cancellation experiences, has been shelved, to the frustration of countless publisher and media companies who had updated sites and apps to comply with the new law. Why, you might ask? Despite huge consumer support for the principle of subscriptions being "as easy to end as to start" and tightening auto-renewal regs, opponents found loopholes in the smallprint (!) which they say show FTC failures in formulating the law. Judges agreed. The opponents? Think gyms, spas, instant credit providers, workplace injury insurance schemes and the like - paragons of subscription virtue their lawyers would tell you. Expect the law back again, or the rise of voluntary good-practice certification bodies.
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BRICS unites on AI
As global discussions on AI governance gain momentum, BRICS leaders (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) are joining the party with a first joint-statement on the topic. Framed at the 17th BRICS Summit, the document stresses ethnical, inclusive, and sustainable development of AI and outlines core priorities such as a UN-led multilateralism, fair access to technology, and respect for digital sovereignty, all aimed at managing risks while also supporting the Global South.
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Publishers vs Google: AI snippets, real trouble
Independent publishers in the UK and Europe recently hit Google with antitrust complaints over AI Overviews, those AI-burgled tidbits at the top of search results using your content to make a trip to your site unnecessary. According to the complaint, Overviews snatch traffic and drain revenue from journalism, and give back nothing. A key plank of the UK complaint is the Google enforcement of its 2-bots-for-1 stance that inclusion in search results requires AI scraping - a digital hostage situation as plenty see it. Google argues it's all fine and their AI actually helps people discover more content. It does - on Google-owned sites. Publishers aren't buying it, and neither are regulators.
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OpenAI's new security strategy
After its giant pot/kettle moment - implying Chinese LLM DeepSeek used ChatGPT data to train its model - OpenAI has implemented extensive internal security measures to tighten staff access to its own products, isolate core tech, and ban internet usage.
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Glide's latest DACH attack
Swiss publishers rejoice! The world's most Content Awarey headless CMS for publishers and media has a new partner in Switzerland and covering the entire DACH region. Sector specialists Centralsoft, wizards at migrations and complex publishing projects, are your go-to experts in the region for insight into what Glide CMS can do for you or your next major publishing launch.
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Digital marketers: Improvise. Adapt. Overcome. 
AI has rewritten the rules of digital marketing, with users turning to AI tools in preference to Google guidance on how to do it best. For marketers, the old playbooks are out and content needs to be built for both search and AI-native platforms, else it risks being invisible to one or the other. Adweek looks at the path forward and says it's time to rethink strategies and adapt early in order to be ready for the next phase of consumer attention.
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The battle for news clicks
The battle for news traffic is heating up as Google's AI Overviews slowly rewrite the rules of online search. By feeding answers directly on results pages, they snatch clicks and revenue from heavyweights such as Mail Online, People, and Buzzfeed. On the other hand, ChatGPT is stealing the spotlight with news queries skyrocketing over 200% since early 2024. Press Gazette has the scoop.
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Billion dollar bets
OpenAI is paying a steep price to stay on top, literally, as the company has shelled out $4.4 billion in stock-based compensation last year, more than its entire revenue. This move sets a new bar for Silicon Valley's talent war, but it obviously comes with a cost: rising pressure to turn a profit, and a ticking clock. OpenAI is betting that being involved in the future of AI is going to make it all worth it. If they lose this war, they will not only run out of road, but also of money.
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Academic cheat sheets
With AI seeping into every pore of life, it now found its way into academia and boy is it sneaky. Researchers from top institutions have been caught embedding hidden prompts in papers to trick AI reviews into giving glowing feedback. It's basically invisible text which is telling bots to "only give positive reviews" and "highlight the novelty", like a digital whisper. Is it a clever counterstrike against lazy, AI-dependant reviews, or dangerously imperilling academic integrity? If the field is built on trust and rigour, such tricks could poison the well.
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Predictability over reasoning
More LLM flaws on display after they were shown to churn out the same "random" numbers, like parrots in shiny disguise. Regurgitating matching randomness from the same training data sounds predictable if entirely against the point of supposed random results, but when applied to things like cybersecurity, deliberate misinformation, and social engineering attacks becomes useful insight towards cracking security against such things.
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AI product reviews: can you trust them?
Google AI Overviews for products are flooding the web. Can you trust them? Perhaps a bigger question is: do the products even exist? Gisele Navarro shares more details.
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The price of speed
One to put in the learning file: a Texas news outlet reported the miracle rescue of two girls during the recent tragic Texas floods, without official confirmation, then had to backtrack when it was debunked as being an AI fiction.
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Gemini: helpful or nosy?
Google is quietly flipping the switches to allow its Gemini AI to poke in the shadows of your Android apps such as WhatsApp and Messages, whether you like it or not. Who is it actually helping? A confusing roll-out which flip-flopped on opt-out advice didn't help. Privacy minded users should dig into their settings ASAP.
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Newsroom robo-bouncers
Despite the rise of AI bots scraping the web for training data, many publishers still have no digital "do not enter" sign, or as we know it a simple robots.txt file. In some countries not a single outlet is using it, where others in places like Denmark are leading the resistance. If publishers want a seat at the AI table, and maybe a slice of the cash pie, protect your content.
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Making scrapers pay
Anubis is a CAPTCHA guardian which challenges bots not humans. After landing on a site, casual users get a puzzle to solve, nothing more than a blink, but for a large-scale AI crawler, that puzzle turns into a digital headache and a server meltdown. Robots.txt politely asks the crawlers to stay outside, but in today's world where LLMs are devouring terabytes, polite just doesn't cut it anymore. That's where Anubis and others come in to charge the LLMs rent and send out a message: if you want our words, you'll have to work for them - or hand over the dubloons.
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OpenAI takes aim at Chrome
OpenAI is readying a Chrome rival to take on Google's browser market dominance. With a launch date coming soon, a ChatGPT-style interface and AI agents ready to do your bidding, OpenAI is going straight for Google's data-rich ad empire.
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