Paris On Wednesday, France's competition police punished Alphabet's Google 250 million euros ($271.73 million) for EU intellectual property violations in its connection with media publishers, citing worries about its AI service.
The watchdog said Google's AI-powered chatbot Bard, now Gemini, was trained on publisher and news agency content without their consent. The agency said Google had committed not to dispute the facts during settlement processes and provided many ways to fix certain issues.
Google stated it consented "because it is time to move on" , said "we want to focus on the larger goal of sustainable approaches to connecting people with quality content and on working constructively with French publishers."
The company said the fine was excessive and that the watchdog had not adequately considered its efforts "in an environment where it’s very hard to set a course because we can’t predict which way the wind will blow next."
The fine is related to a copyright dispute in France over internet content sparked by complaints from major news organizations like AFP. The U.S. tech giant dropped its appeal against a 500 million euro fine issued after a large Autorite de la Concurrence probe in 2022, appearing to resolve the matter.
In Wednesday's announcement, the watchdog said Google violated four of seven settlement agreements, including good faith negotiations with publishers and transparency.
Google's 2023 AI chatbot Bard was educated on data from unspecified media publications and news agencies without the company's or regulator's knowledge, according to the watchdog.
The watchdog said Google linked the use of its artificial intelligence tool to the display of protected content, making it harder for publishers and news agencies to negotiate fair fees.
The charge comes as publishers, writers, and newsrooms try to curb AI services' data scraping of their online content without proper recompense. Microsoft and OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, were sued by the New York Times in 2023 for exploiting millions of its articles to train chatbots without authorization.
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