OpenAI's curious legal defence, fake books by real authors, and Google advice on AI content

This week's Content Aware brings you the Google I/O aftermath, AI Overviews trouble, unsolicited personal AI assistants, and a new watermark tool.

Published: 15:11, 22 May 2025

Corbidge comments on... Google's swings and roundabouts
A floundering Google isn't good for publishers - or anyone - in the short-term. But while it rolls out idea after idea and waits for breakup, there may be a few shafts of opportunity for content people and publishers, says our content navigator in chief Rob.
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INMA World Congress of News Media & Kordiam Editorial Days: publishing galore 
Members of the Glide team are at both the World Congress of News Media as well as the Kordiam Editorial Days in New York and Hamburg respectively, taking part in discussions on topics ranging from Gen AI, to subscriptions patterns, to newsroom tools turning problems into opportunities (hint: Kordiam & Glide already have you covered). If you're attending, swing by for a chat!

OpenAI's truthful fiction
Open AI's successful defence against a recent libel claim isn't the flex they think it is. After ChatGPT hallucinated criminal allegations against a public figure, their defence case basically rested on the argument "People know that AI answers are so untrustworthy that we can't possibly be held to blame!" Err... OK. Another admission for the funding meetings and shareholders to ponder we assume! Will Google also adopt this defence when its generated articles answers do the same and they are on the hook as publishers? Perhaps they need AI insurance.
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Lording it up again
As we've mentioned previously, the UK second chamber the House of Lords keeps bashing the government's proposed Data (Use and Access) Bill, and has again backed fresh amendments to protect the creative industry from AI thievery. The vote was even more convincing than the one last week, so the bill is once more sent back to the Commons legislative chamber for toughening up. Unexpected highlight of the process: Sir Elton John and Sir Paul McCartney getting stuck into politics. Do Lordships loom?
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Dear reader, here's your summer slop
A recent blunder involving a summer reading list featuring books that don't actually exist written by authors who do exist has amply illustrated the risks of using unverified GenAI content. The list, published in the Chicago Sun-Times and Philadelphia Inquirer, came from a trusted third-party source. People who read books are a particular type, and if the bond of trust is broken with them, they likely won't forget. For GenAI, read "laziness". The person responsible is unsurprisingly fighting to save their reputation in what can only be seen as a career-threatening over-trust of AI.
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MIT pulls controversial AI study
Red faces at MIT after it pulled a much hyped study into the alleged power of AI to help scientists. Does the paper's retraction mean that countless AI company funding pitch decks are now being edited to remove the spurious world-beating claims? Hmm... The Institute cited privacy laws for not disclosing details, but in today's world it almost feels irresponsible not to ask whether the reason of retraction was the use of AI in writing the material.
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Google weighs in on using AI content
SEO sleuth Barry Schwartz today alights on some new Google advice on the use of AI-generated content on your site - and its potential downsides. Hold on a minute...
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... but will it follow its own advice?
Google has been presenting AI Overview rewritten articles as their own work, while adding no value, nor any original insight, nor anything new, all while pinching your clicks. Why do those terms sound familiar to your wincing ear? Maybe it's because they are all the metrics which Google uses to downgrade content it says is spammy and low value, such as when it used the policy to crash publisher business models just like they crashed affiliate sites. Anti-trust lawyers are no doubt taking note at the latest rules-for-thee-not-or-me scenario.
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Google I/O SEO aftermath
With the Google I/O conference behind us, Mark Williams-Cook shares his thoughts about AI-powered search, who will have the upper hand, SEO tactics and risks as well as potential legal challenges which may arise in the future.
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European Accessibility Act: are you ready?
The European Accessibility Act reaches the enforcability stage next month - are you prepped? It sets new standards for all sorts of digital services for those in the bloc, and comes (eventually) with teeth in the shape of fines. Read the full law here and make sure all your ducks are in a row!
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AI assistants that no one asked for
Even though having a personalised assistant sounds convenient, let's not forget that behind the friendly interface lies a familiar and worrying thing: user lock-in. AI sage David Buttle writes for Press Gazette on the precautions lawmakers should be taking now to prevent ushering in a new era of the same market dominance all over again.
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Google Discover on desktop: yay or nay for publishers
Although the rollout of Google Discover on desktop is a welcome development for publishers, it will not erase Google's previous history of fluctuating traffic distribution. We are remaining cautiously optimistic, if it turns out to be a consistent and reliable traffic source it could be a game changer for publishers. We will have to wait and see, after all, Google giveth, and Google taketh away.
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Google launches AI Watermark tool - but with limited impact
Google has unveiled a web-based portal that allows users to detect AI-generated content watermarked with its SynthID system. While helpful and definitely a step in the right direction, the system is still limited because of the absence of a unified watermarking standard across the industry.
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