Google is testing an overview of AI-powered articles on the Google News pages of specific publications

Google is testing an overview of AI-powered articles on participating publications’ Google News pages as part of a new pilot program, Google announced Wednesday.

News publishers participating in the pilot include Der Spiegel, El País, Folha, Infobae, Kompas, The Guardian, The Times of India, The Washington Examiner, The Washington Post, and others.

Google said in a blog post that the purpose of the new business partnership program is to “explore how artificial intelligence can attract more engaged audiences.” As part of the new AI pilot program, the company will work with publishers to trial new features in Google News.

By adding an overview of AI-powered articles, Google says users will get more context before clicking to read the article. While AI-generated summaries may result in fewer clicks on news articles, publications participating in the commercial pilot will receive direct payments from Google, which could offset a potential decline in traffic to their sites.

AI-powered article overviews will only appear on participating publications’ Google News pages, and nowhere else on Google News or in search.

This isn’t the first time Google has offered AI-powered news summaries. In July, the company rolled out AI summaries in Discover, the main news feed within the Google Search app. With this change, users will no longer see a single headline from a main post in the feed. Instead, they see the logos of several news publishers in the upper-right corner, followed by an AI-generated summary citing those sources.

Google is also trialling audio briefings for people who prefer listening to news rather than reading it, as part of the new pilot program.

The company says these features will include clear attribution and linking to articles.

Additionally, Google is collaborating with organizations such as Estadão, Antara, Yonhap, and The Associated Press to incorporate real-time information and improve results in the Gemini app.

“As the way people consume information evolves, we will continue to improve our products for people around the world and engage with stakeholder feedback across the ecosystem,” Google wrote in its blog. “We do this work in collaboration with websites and creators of all sizes, from major news publishers to new and emerging voices.”

As part of Google’s announcement on Wednesday, the company said it will launch its Favorite Sources feature globally after first launching it in the US and India in August. This feature allows users to select their favorite news sites and blogs to appear in the Top Stories section of Google search results.

In the coming days, the feature will be available to English language users around the world, and Google plans to roll it out to all supported languages ​​early next year.

Google will now also highlight links from your news subscriptions and show these links in a dedicated carousel in the Gemini app in the coming weeks, with AI Overviews and AI Mode to follow.

While these features make it easier for users to access news from their preferred sources, they also risk trapping them in an ideological bubble that limits their exposure to different viewpoints.

Google also announced that it is increasing the number of links included in AI mode. In addition, it provides “contextual introductions” to embedded links, which are brief explanations that explain why exploring the link is useful.