French competition authorities have imposed a $271 million fine on Google for breaching intellectual property laws after it was found that the tech giant has trained its Bard AI model, later rebranded to Gemini, on articles from news agencies without prior notification.
Google has reportedly agreed on the settlement and pledged not to contest as Reuters writes, saying it is time to move on, adding we want to focus on the larger goal of sustainable approaches to connecting people with quality content and on working constructively with French publishers, noting that the company has suggested a range of approaches to address the concerns.
The regulator blamed Google of lacking negotiations in good faith with news publishers on the amount it was willing to pay them for usage of their material, and stated in an announcement that the punishment was for failing to respect commitments made in 2022.
The competition authority stated that When it comes to declaring whether using news content to train an artificial intelligence service falls under neighboring rights and protection, this question has not been answered just yet, however it added, according to TechCrunch that Google has breached its commitment #1 by failing to inform publishers that their content had been used to train Bard.
There have been accusations against Google along with other internet and AI platforms that they profit billions off news without properly paying the journalists who report on it, as reported by the Guardian, in order to combat this, the European Union developed neighboring rights, a kind of copyright that enables print media to demand payment for utilizing their material.
