On Monday, at an artificial intelligence summit held in New York, a Google executive defended the company's practice of integrating AI Overviews into search results.

In response to a new lawsuit filed by Penske Media Corporation, the parent company of Rolling Stone magazine, Markham Erickson, Vice President of Government Affairs and Public Policy at Google, stated that user preferences are changing. He pointed out that users are moving away from "fact answers" provided by original websites, and instead turning to contextual summaries provided by AI Overviews at the top of the homepage.

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Erickson emphasized that Google aims to maintain a "healthy ecosystem" by combining AI Overviews with regular search results, known as the "10 blue links."

However, this statement contradicts recent evidence. Multiple reports have shown that AI Overviews have caused significant declines in search traffic for some websites. In Penske's lawsuit, the company clearly stated that the drop in search traffic has directly led to reduced revenue for online publishers.