Publishers fear AI summaries are hitting online traffic

The news article discusses the concerns of publishers regarding the impact of Google's AI-generated summaries on their online traffic. According to the article, the AI overviews provided by Google are diverting readers away from the original news sources, which is a significant worry for publishers. Publishers fear that these AI-powered summaries are reducing the number of people clicking through to their websites, potentially impacting their revenue streams. The article suggests that this issue is particularly concerning for online newspapers and other publications that rely on website traffic and advertising revenue. The article does not delve into the specific details of how the AI summaries are affecting traffic, nor does it provide any data or statistics to quantify the impact. However, the central concern raised is that the AI technology is disrupting the traditional model of news consumption and potentially posing a challenge to the financial sustainability of online media.