Google's AI responses could leave the press without readers before people reach the article

AI-generated response search engines can leave newsrooms without public and revenue, if users receive summaries directly and no longer reach the original sources, warned Antonis Kalogeropoulos, a researcher in political communication, at a STOA event held in the European Parliament. He described the shift from link-based searching to a "zero-click" environment, where people read the AI-provided answer without opening the journalistic article.

In short

Antonis Kalogeropoulos stated at the European Parliament that AI changes the distribution of news through search engines, not just the way articles are produced. The researcher described the emergence of a "zero-click" environment, where the public receives AI summaries without visiting the publication's websites. For newsrooms, the loss of clicks can mean loss of traffic, advertising, subscriptions, and direct relationships with readers. Kalogeropoulos warned that large press organizations may cope better, while smaller publications risk becoming even more vulnerable. The STOA debate took place in the European Parliament and focused on the future of science journalism, AI, public trust, and democracy.

The statements were made during the panel "The Future of Science, Journalism, AI, Trust, and Democracy," organized by STOA, the European Parliament's structure dedicated to assessing scientific and technological options. The panel brought together researchers and science journalists for a discussion about the role of newsrooms in an information ecosystem increasingly dominated by platforms and AI tools.

Antonis Kalogeropoulos, Associate Professor in Political Communication at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, said that the discussion about AI and the press should not be reduced to the question of whether newsrooms use AI to produce texts. An equally important change is taking place in distribution, where the public finds the news.

He explained that people reach online news mainly through three routes: directly on a publication's website or app, through social media, and through search engines. For newsrooms, direct access is the most valuable, as it can support subscriptions, advertising, and a stable relationship with the audience.

Search was, until now, one of the important routes through which readers reached articles. Kalogeropoulos said that people tend to have more trust in search engines than in social media when looking for information. However, the emergence of AI-generated summaries changes this relationship.

"Search becomes for publishers what publishers call a zero-click environment," Kalogeropoulos said. He explained that people no longer click on search results but see an AI summary directly.

This change is important because many newsrooms depend on traffic received through search engines. If the public receives the answer directly on the search page, the original article remains unvisited, and the publication that documented, verified, and published the information no longer receives the reader.

"The zero-click environment means that a large part of the revenue of press organizations disappears," the researcher said. He linked this loss to the existing difficulties in monetizing traffic from social media and the fact that only some large publications can compensate through subscriptions or strong direct audience.

The problem is not just economic. If AI summaries become the main interface through which the public receives news, people may end up consuming information without seeing the source, the author, the context, corrections, nuances, or the entire article. For journalism, this reduces the visibility of the editorial process and can weaken accountability to the source.

Kalogeropoulos warned that this evolution could exacerbate inequalities between newsrooms. Large media organizations, such as The New York Times or Financial Times, have strong brands, subscriptions, and loyal audiences. Smaller newsrooms, including local, specialized, or independent publications, depend more on discovery through search and platforms.

"I fear that this environment can intensify a winner-takes-it-all environment," Kalogeropoulos said. He pointed out that the internet has allowed large publications to expand their reader base, while many smaller newspapers, especially in the United States, have disappeared.

The risk is that the same logic could be accelerated by AI. Large publications can continue to attract readers directly because the public explicitly seeks them out. Smaller publications may become invisible if their information is taken, synthesized, or reformulated in AI responses without the user ever reaching the original article.

The effect can also occur at the audience level. Kalogeropoulos said that people interested in journalism, science, or certain publications will continue to go directly to the sites they trust. Others, especially those less interested in news or politics, may become increasingly dependent on AI summaries from Google, Bing, or other search engines.

This dependence on automated summaries also raises the issue of accuracy. Kalogeropoulos said that early evidence indicates the existence of inaccuracies in AI summaries, and many users are still not fully aware that the answers they see are generated by AI.

In the same panel, the discussion also touched on the theme of trust in the press. Kalogeropoulos reminded that in international research, trust is measured through questions such as whether people believe they can trust most news most of the time. He said that trends show declines in trust in several countries, but that more in-depth research is needed to distinguish between healthy skepticism and cynicism towards the press.

AI is not necessarily the main cause of declining trust, but it can become a new source of confusion. If people do not know when information comes from a verified article, when it is an automated summary, and when it is an incomplete or incorrect synthesis, trust in the entire information ecosystem can become even more fragile.

For newsrooms, the question becomes urgent: how can they remain visible and credible in an environment where platforms provide the answer before the public reaches the source? The answer lies not only in technology but also in funding models, editors' rights, transparency regarding AI, the relationship with the public, and the ability of newsrooms to demonstrate the value of verified journalism.

The STOA debate showed that AI does not threaten journalism only through automatically generated texts. A deeper change may come from the way information is mediated by platforms. If search engines become answer providers, and newsrooms remain only invisible providers of informational raw material, the press may lose precisely the economic conditions that allow it to verify, investigate, and explain.

The STOA event "The Future of Science, Journalism, AI, Trust, and Democracy" took place in the European Parliament and analyzed the impact of artificial intelligence on newsrooms, scientific communication, news distribution, public trust, and democracy. STOA is the structure of the European Parliament dedicated to assessing scientific and technological options.