Google upgrades search engine with ‘AI Overviews’ – risks revenue drain for media companies

Google on Tuesday unveiled a major overhaul to its flagship search engine that uses AI-generated summaries to displace the links to news stories – a move that threatens to deprive traditional media companies of much-needed revenue.  

The new feature, “dubbed AI Overviews,” will debut in the US this week and provide answers to queries like “How to fix my toilet?” or “What is the best way to clean leather boots” — pushing down the set of links related to the search.

The release at its  annual I/O conference will surely rankle news outlets and other publishers who have seen their traffic – and ad revenue – crater at the expense of Google’s dominance of the internet.