Technologies

Google’s AI Overviews ‘Misconduct’ Undermines Publishers Who Create Content, Lawsuit Says

Penske Media, which publishes Rolling Stone, Billboard, ArtForum and others, says that AI Overviews in Google search stymie their traffic, undercut their revenue and mean less content for consumers.

Penske Media, which owns publications including Rolling Stone, Variety and Billboard, is suing Google, alleging that the search giant is illegally using their content and that of other publishers to fill out the AI Overviews that have become a fixture at the top of Google search results.

In a lawsuit filed Friday in US District Court for the District of Columbia, Penske argues that Google’s «misconduct» through its monopoly in online search has coerced publishers to acquiesce to misappropriation of their content, diverting readers away from publishers’ own sites and depriving them of the ability to earn money from content created by their journalists.

«It is reasonably foreseeable that Google’s forced entry into the online publishing output market will result in less traffic to other online publishers, less revenue to the online publishers that actually generate their own content, and, as a result, less online publishing content for consumers,» Penske’s complaint says.

In 2024, that same district court ruled that Google illegally protects its search monopoly. Earlier this month, Judge Amit Mehta issued the penalty finding in that case, saying that the company must share some of its search data with competitors.

Google on Monday pushed back against Penske’s lawsuit, saying that it is providing a valuable service.

«Every day, Google sends billions of clicks to sites across the web, and AI Overviews send traffic to a greater diversity of sites,» said José Castañeda, a policy communications manager at Google. «We will defend against these meritless claims.»

Penske didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The company also publishes The Hollywood Reporter, Indiewire, WWD (Women’s Wear Daily), ArtNews, ArtForum and others.

For decades, there’s been a mutual relationship between online publishers and Google. By indexing sites across the internet, the search giant can deliver up-to-date and relevant information for people’s queries. In exchange for letting Google — which has a nearly 90% share of the search market — crawl their sites, publishers get traffic through those search results, as long as people have reason to click through.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

With the advent of generative AI tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, however, that relationship is changing. Instead of you having to take the time to scour through lists of links, and then read through a selection of articles and webpages, you get a neatly synthesized summary in seconds that combines information from the AI tools’ training data and directly from the web.

A wide spectrum of publishers and authors has contended that AI companies trained their AI models without proper licensing and are profiting from high-quality human-made content. For that reason, some have sued OpenAI, Perplexity, Anthropic, Microsoft and Google. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

Meanwhile, data shows that whenever AI Overviews appear in search, there is a noticeable drop in clickthrough rate to the source material. Google claims that AI sends «higher quality clicks» to sites, meaning those visitors stay on those sites longer with more engagement.

The outcome of the Penske lawsuit will likely have significant implications for publishers and AI companies, including Google.

«If Penske wins, it would likely lead to platforms needing to negotiate licensing deals with publishers for the right to include summaries in search or overview features,» said Robert Rosenberg, an intellectual property partner at Moses Singer, a New York-based firm.

A ruling might also dictate what is considered «transformative» work — that is, not subject to copyright protections — or could lead to further regulatory pressure on Google, Rosenberg said. «This case highlights how dominant platforms can impose their own terms because of their scale.»

Technologies

Google Rolls Out Latest AI Model, Gemini 3.1 Pro

Starting Thursday, Gemini 3.1 Pro can be accessed via the AI app, NotebookLM and more.

Google took the wraps off its latest AI model, Gemini 3.1 Pro, on Thursday, calling it a «step forward in core reasoning.» The software giant says its latest model is smarter and more capable for complex problem-solving.

Google shared a series of bookmarks and examples of the latest model’s capabilities, and is rolling out Gemini 3.1 to a series of products for consumers, enterprise and developers.

The overall AI model landscape seems to change weekly. Google’s release comes just a few days after Anthropic dropped the latest version of Claude, Sonnet 4.6, which can operate a computer at a human baseline level.

Benchmarks of Gemini 3.1

Google shared some details about AI model benchmarks for Gemini 3.1 Pro.

The announcement blog post highlights that the Gemini 3.1 Pro benchmark for the ARC-AGI-2 test for solving abstract reasoning puzzles sits at 77.1%. This is noticeably higher than Gemini 3 Pro’s 31.1% score for the same test.

The ARC-AGI-2 benchmark is one of multiple improvements coming from Gemini 3.1 Pro, Google says.

3.1 Pro enhancements

With better benchmarks nearly across the board, Google highlighted some of the ways that translate in general use:

Code-based animations: The latest Gemini model can easily create animated SVG images that are scalable without quality loss and ready to be added to websites with a text prompt.

Creative coding: Gemini 3.1 Pro generated an entire website based on a character from Emily Brontë’s novel Wuthering Heights, if she were a landscape photographer showing off her portfolio.

Interactive design: 3.1 Pro was used to create a 3D interactive starling murmuration that allows the flock to be controlled in an assortment of ways, all while a soundscape is generated that changes with the movement of the birds.

Availability

As of Thursday, Gemini 3.1 Pro is rolling out in the Gemini app for those with the AI Pro or Ultra plans. NotebookLM users subscribed to one of those plans will also be able to take advantage of the new model.

Both developers and enterprises can also access the new model via the Gemini API through a range of products, including AI Studio, Gemini Enterprise, Antigravity and Android Studio.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Feb. 20 #719

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Feb. 20, No. 719.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is a bit tricky. Some of the answers are difficult to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: True grit

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: You might find this in a wood shop.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

SAND, CART, SCAR, SCAT, PAPER, HAVE

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

COARSE, HARSH, SCRATCHY, ROUGH, PRICKLY, ABRASIVE

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is SANDPAPER. To find it, start with the S that’s the farthest-left letter on the very top row, and wind down.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Feb. 20, #515

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Feb. 20, No. 515.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition features a category all about my favorite football team. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: We’ll be right back…

Green group hint: Run for the roses.

Blue group hint: Skol!

Purple group hint: