Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this column. Not sure how you found it, because a new threat arising from artificial intelligence’s advances is rapidly making this, and other sources of journalism, easier to avoid.

The latest challenge for news organizations is technology that answers your search for information with an AI-driven summary—what Google calls an AI Overview—atop the screen’s display of the most relevant links to a query.

Studies show many major news outlets are experiencing serious declines in online traffic in recent months as AI Overview takes hold, because the summary somehow satisfies readers sufficiently so as not to click through to the journalism website sources.

The consequences of this development are profound. If you don’t believe me, read what the prominent AI platform ChatGPT—essentially, one of the perpetrators—had to say about AI Overview’s impact when I asked about potential ramifications: “The threat posed by Google’s AI Overview to news organizations is serious and potentially existential, particularly for publishers that rely heavily on search referral traffic for ad revenue, subscriptions, or visibility.”

For many years now, online journalism has earned a large share of its readership—about half, in fact—from individual searches, primarily using Google.

For decades, search engines and social platforms........

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