The French regulator has imposed a fine of €250 million on Google for violating the copyright of media publishers, also warning about the unauthorized use of their content in ‘training’ AI-based chatbots.
A group of leading media organizations in France, including the news agency Agence France Presse (AFP), complained a few years ago that Google was using their online content without authorization, thereby violating their copyright.
It seemed that this dispute was resolved in 2022 when the American tech giant withdrew its appeal against a €500 million fine at the end of an investigation conducted by the competition regulator Autorité de la Concurrence.
Now, the regulator has reported that Google violated four out of seven obligations from the settlement, including negotiating with publishers in good faith and providing transparent information.
In the settlement process, the American company committed not to contest the established facts and proposed a series of measures to rectify the disputed practice, the regulator noted.
Particularly highlighted was Google’s AI chatbot Bard, which was launched in 2023, and the company allegedly trained it on the content of media houses and news agencies without prior notification to either the media or the regulator.
The French subsidiary of Google did not immediately respond to a request from Reuters for comment on the decision.
The French fine coincided with the efforts of numerous publishers, writers, and media to limit the practice of automatic data collection through artificial intelligence without permission and appropriate compensation.
The New York Times sued Google’s rivals Microsoft and OpenAI, the creator of the popular AI platform ChatGPT, last year, claiming they unlawfully used millions of its articles to train their chatbots.
