Web desk(National Times)- Britain’s competition watchdog said on Wednesday that it had ordered Google to allow website owners in the United Kingdom to opt out of having their content used by the US technology giant’s AI search.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) called the change a “world first” after it had proposed the measure in January.

Website publishers, particularly media outlets, claim that artificial intelligence (AI) models take their content without compensation.

They also argue that the AI-generated summaries discourage clicks to publishers’ original pages, reducing traffic to their sites and in turn cutting their advertising revenue.

Google said on Wednesday that sites opting out would not receive traffic or impressions from its generative AI features.

In response to the opt-out ruling, Google said that “Today, we’re beginning to test a new control that lets website owners manage how their links and content appear in generative AI search features”, its Search Ecosystem general manager, Mrinalini Loew, said in a statement.

The CMA said the ruling “will secure a fairer deal for publishers and consumers”.

It added that Google is “required to make sure that publisher content is properly attributed, using clear links, in AI-generated search results”.

The CMA last year designated Google with “strategic market status”, subjecting it to tougher regulation alongside other technology giants.

“With features like [Google’s] AI Overviews rapidly reshaping online search, it is crucial that content publishers, including news organisations, have appropriate bargaining power over how their content is used,” CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell said in a statement.

AI Overviews currently have more than 2.5 billion monthly users, according to Google, which last month showed off plans to turn its traditional search bar into an AI assistant.