Italian publishers are calling for an investigation into Google and its new artificial intelligence feature called AI Overviews, saying it is “killing media traffic.”

According to the Guardian, the Federation of Italian Newspaper Editors (FIEG) has filed a formal complaint with Agcom, the Italian communications authority, claiming that this Google feature violates European digital services legislation and threatens the viability of the press.

AI Overviews displays at the top of the search page a ready-made answer that the AI builds using information from various websites. So users get what they want without clicking on links and without going to news sites.

FIEG says that Google is becoming a “traffic killer“, meaning a “traffic killer”, adding that its products not only directly compete with the content produced by publishing companies, but also “reduce their visibility and thus their advertising revenues”.

Studies in the UK and US show that AI Overviews have reduced “clicks” to original articles by up to 80%, as users rarely click on links below AI summaries. Google, however, rejects the data and says these surveys are
“inaccurate.”

The AI Overviews feature arrived in Italy in March, and in September, Georgia Meloni’s government became the first in the European Union to pass a law regulating AI in September. That law provides for restrictions on access by minors and penalties for those who use the technology for malicious purposes, such as deepfakes.