The European Commission has announced the opening of an antitrust investigation into Google to examine whether the company violated EU competition rules. The investigation focuses on whether Google used content from website publishers, as well as videos posted on YouTube, for artificial intelligence purposes, affecting competition and imposing a burden on content creators.

The Commission will investigate whether Google “distorts competition by imposing unfair terms and conditions on publishers and content creators, or offers itself privileged access to this data, thereby limiting the potential of competing AI models.” According to the Commission, Google may have used the content of web publishers to offer AI services on search results pages without providing adequate compensation to publishers and without giving them the opportunity to opt out of the use of their content.

The investigation also extends to the use of videos and other content uploaded by users to YouTube to train Google’s AI models. The Commission is concerned that the company does not compensate the creators of this content and does not give them the option to opt out of the use of their data.

This investigation follows the release of new search results that leverage artificial intelligence, which appears to have affected traffic to news sites, reducing traffic to them.

Google was fined nearly €3 billion in September for abusing its dominant position in online advertising.