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"People will figure it out": Google CEO on publisher compensation future

Google executive suggests creators will develop content specifically for artificial intelligence platforms during industry summit.

Luis Rijo

• 6 min read
Google CEO Sundar Pichai amid declining publisher traffic and AI marketplace transformation concerns
Google CEO Sundar Pichai amid declining publisher traffic and AI marketplace transformation concerns

Google CEO Sundar Pichai outlined his vision for content creator compensation during The New York Times' DealBook Summit in December, suggesting the emergence of a marketplace where creators develop content specifically for artificial intelligence platforms. His comments came as publishers report significant traffic losses from Google's AI-powered search features.

According to the article published by The Atlantic, Pichai indicated that market forces would determine compensation structures without necessarily involving traditional publishers. "There'll be a marketplace in the future, I think—there'll be creators who will create for AI," Pichai stated during the summit. "People will figure it out."

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Summary

Who: Google CEO Sundar Pichai and major news publishers including DotDash Meredith, Daily Mail, The Atlantic, and the News Media Alliance

What: Pichai suggested during The New York Times' DealBook Summit that a marketplace will emerge where creators develop content specifically for AI platforms, while publishers report significant traffic losses from Google's AI-powered search features

When: Pichai's comments occurred during the December 2024 DealBook Summit, amid ongoing tensions throughout 2025 as Google expanded AI Mode access and publishers documented traffic declines

Where: The marketplace concept addresses global content creation while current conflicts focus primarily on US and European markets where Google's AI features have launched

Why: The situation matters to the marketing community because AI-powered search features fundamentally alter how users discover content, potentially transforming digital marketing strategies and website monetization models while creating new challenges for content creators who depend on search traffic for revenue

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Publishers face mounting pressure from AI features

The statements arrive amid escalating tensions between Google and major news organizations over AI-powered search capabilities. According to comprehensive analysis from Ahrefs, Google's AI Overviews reduce traffic to outside websites by more than 34 percent when they appear in search results. The study compared 300,000 searches from March 2024 with the same period in 2025.

DotDash Meredith, which publishes People, Better Homes & Gardens, and Food & Wine, has begun preparing for what CEO Neil Vogel termed a possible "Google Zero" scenario. According to the Atlantic report, some industry observers speculate that traffic drops from chatbots contributed to recent layoffs at outlets including Business Insider and the Daily Dot.

Rich Caccappolo, vice chair of media at the company that publishes the Daily Mail, described the threat in stark terms during interviews with The Atlantic. "That is absolutely the fear," he said when asked if AI-generated answers could eliminate his company. "And my concern is it's not going to happen in three or five years—I joke it's going to happen next Tuesday."

Training data creates imbalanced negotiations

The compensation discussion occurs against a backdrop of what publishers describe as systematically unfair licensing negotiations. According to the Atlantic report, at least 72 licensing deals have been completed between publishers and AI companies over the past two years. However, Caccappolo told The Atlantic he has "felt a tremendous imbalance at the negotiating table."

The article reveals that books have sometimes been licensed for only a couple hundred dollars each. Publishers requesting higher compensation may be rejected, with AI companies subsequently using their material without payment. This dynamic stems from what the report describes as AI companies having already demonstrated "an ability and a willingness to take it without paying."

Technical developments intensify concerns

Google has expanded AI Mode access to all US users as of May 1, 2025, eliminating the previous waitlist system that limited testing to select groups. The feature provides conversational search experiences through what Google describes as "query fan-out technique" that generates multiple related searches simultaneously across information sources.

According to Google documentation, AI Mode integrates Shopping Graph data containing over 45 billion product listings that update more than 2 billion times hourly. The system synthesizes information from multiple sources to create comprehensive responses, potentially reducing user motivation to visit individual websites for additional details.

The News Media Alliance has characterized Google's approach as "the definition of theft" according to statements from President and CEO Danielle Coffey on May 21. The organization called for Department of Justice intervention, representing an escalation from previous traffic impact discussions to direct legal threats.

Marketplace vision contrasts with current practices

Pichai's marketplace concept differs significantly from current AI training practices. According to the Atlantic report, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman previously suggested an "opt-in" regime where authors could receive "micropayments" when their work influences AI outputs. However, this approach contrasts with OpenAI's current practice of using artist and writer styles without compensation or effective opt-out mechanisms.

The marketplace model Pichai described aligns with Silicon Valley's historical approach to industry transformation. According to the Atlantic analysis, tech companies typically view established institutions as intermediaries to be eliminated for efficiency gains. This pattern emerged with ride-sharing platforms that initially attracted drivers before algorithmically controlling salaries, benefits, and workloads.

Publishers face significant challenges in preventing unauthorized use of their content. According to the Atlantic report, the Robots Exclusion Protocol - the standard opt-out method available to news publishers - can be easily circumvented. AI companies generally maintain secrecy around training data, making it difficult for publishers to identify which companies might be using their content.

Legal scholar James Grimmelmann told The Atlantic that AI companies could defend licensing deals by arguing the agreements cover more than training rights. Companies might claim payments compensate for cleaner article versions, real-time content feeds, or liability releases for chatbot plagiarism rather than training material access.

At least 12 lawsuits involving more than 20 publishers have been filed against AI companies. However, according to the Atlantic report, these cases may be resolved only after irreparable damage occurs to publishing business models.

Revenue replacement remains unclear

The licensing agreements provide minimal compensation compared to lost advertising and subscription revenue. According to publisher sources in the Atlantic report, even favorable deals cannot approach the revenue lost from decreased readership caused by AI-powered search features.

Some publishers pursue dual strategies, combining legal action with licensing negotiations. The Atlantic itself maintains a corporate partnership with OpenAI while simultaneously suing Cohere. This approach reflects uncertainty about which strategy will prove most effective for protecting publisher interests.

Digital media company Ziff Davis has analyzed web-based AI training datasets and determined that content from "high-authority" sources appears more valuable to AI companies than blog posts and social media content. Microsoft researchers have publicly emphasized "the importance of high-quality data" and suggested textbook-style content may be particularly desirable for AI training.

Industry transformation accelerates

Google spent $75 billion on AI infrastructure in 2025, representing a massive increase from $20 billion just a few years ago according to Pichai's Bloomberg Tech Summit appearance on June 5. The investment supports multiple business units spanning search, YouTube, cloud services, and Android operating systems.

According to Pichai's recent statements to various media outlets, AI will eliminate friction between content formats through natively multimodal capabilities. "AI will make it zero friction to move from one format to another," he explained during a May 27, 2025 interview following Google's I/O developer conference.

The CEO highlighted existing capabilities including audio overviews in notebook elements that can process multiple documents to generate podcast-style content. This technology could enable automatic conversion between text, audio, video, and interactive formats without additional production costs for content creators.

Alternative platforms emerge

Advertising technology firm Taboola launched DeeperDive on June 11, 2025, positioning the platform as an "industry-first Gen AI answer engine designed to live directly on publisher websites." Major media organizations Gannett | USA TODAY Network and The Independent joined as launch partners.

DeeperDive operates by embedding AI-powered search functionality within publisher websites rather than redirecting traffic elsewhere. According to Taboola CEO Adam Singolda, "The open web thrives when innovation and fairness go hand in hand. It's simply not sustainable for Gen AI engines to rely on publisher content while sending little traffic and compensating only a select few."

The platform leverages data from Taboola's network of 600 million daily active users across 9,000 publisher partners. This approach contrasts with traditional AI search engines that aggregate content from multiple sources while keeping users within their own interfaces.

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