📰 Rolling Stone’s owner sues Google

Also: Chatbots double false info rate

Author

Evolving AI
September 15, 2025

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Welcome, AI enthusiasts

Google’s AI Overviews are shaking up the media world, and Rolling Stone’s parent company is pushing back. Penske Media has taken Google to court, arguing the feature pulls reporting straight from its articles and leaves readers with little reason to click through. Let’s dive in!

In today’s insights:

  • Rolling Stone’s owner sues Google over AI Overviews

  • Chatbots double false info rate

  • xAI fires one-third of data annotation team

Read time: 4 minutes

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Source: bamboonine

Evolving AI: Rolling Stone's parent company takes Google to court over traffic lost to AI Overviews.

Key Points:

  • Penske Media, owner of Rolling Stone and The Hollywood Reporter, says Google's AI summaries cut clicks and revenue.

  • The company reports affiliate revenue down over one-third this year, blaming reduced Google traffic.

  • Other publishers, from Chegg to European groups, have filed similar suits as pressure on AI search builds.

Details:

Penske Media claims Google’s AI Overviews pull key details from its reporting and give readers little reason to visit original articles. The company says this has led to sharp drops in web traffic and affiliate income. It now faces a hard choice: block Google indexing and lose visibility or keep feeding content that trains Google's AI.

Why It Matters:

Publishers that live on search referrals are staring at more zero‑click sessions as AI Overviews and AI Mode keep answers on Google and slot ads right beside them. Treat Google traffic as rented, not guaranteed. Build direct lines to readers, shift KPIs from sessions to sign‑ups and revenue per visit, and test AI Mode ad inventory if you buy media. Legal pressure could force concessions like paid licensing or more prominent links, but planning for a lower‑click future beats waiting on a court win.

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Source: Newsguard

Evolving AI: Leading AI chatbots are twice as likely to spread false claims as a year ago.

Key Points:

  • Newsguard found major AI tools now repeat false news in 35% of tests, up from last year.

  • Real-time web search lowered refusal rates but opened the door to disinformation.

  • Russian propaganda networks are actively planting stories to exploit these systems.

Details:

A Newsguard study shows leading AI chatbots now repeat misinformation about current events 35% of the time, compared with far lower rates a year ago. Models like ChatGPT and Perplexity saw some of the biggest drops in accuracy after adding real-time web search, which pulls from unreliable sources. Russian operations such as the Pravda network are deliberately seeding false claims to be picked up by these systems.

Why It Matters:

Treat AI answers about breaking news like tips, not truths. With refusal rates at zero and models pulling from polluted sources, a third of newsy replies contain errors. For teams, add guardrails: turn on safe‑source lists, route time‑sensitive queries through a quick fact‑check step, and log citations you can click. If you use AI in support, research, or ad copy, require a second source before publishing and keep a short list of trusted outlets per topic.

Source: REUTERS / Dado Ruvic

Evolving AI: Musk's xAI cuts 500 data labelers to focus on specialist AI tutors.

Key Points:

  • xAI laid off about one-third of its 1,500-person data annotation team.

  • Internal emails cite a shift to specialist AI tutors in STEM, finance, medicine, and safety.

  • The company plans to grow its specialist tutor team tenfold.

Details:

Elon Musk’s xAI dismissed 500 workers from its data annotation unit, a key group responsible for labeling and preparing training data for the Grok chatbot. The company says it is "accelerating the expansion and prioritization of our specialist AI tutors" while scaling back generalist roles. xAI aims to boost its expert-focused hiring across technical and professional domains.

Why It Matters:

Cutting generalist labelers and hiring domain pros points to a new playbook: fewer cheap clicks, more expert judgment. Expect Grok to chase enterprise use cases where accuracy beats volume, from triaging medical questions to parsing financial filings. For workers, it pushes data-labeling jobs up the skill ladder and shrinks entry-level paths. For buyers, it could bring sharper answers plus clearer accountability when specialists sign off. After recent misfires, a bigger dose of expert oversight is the quickest route to credibility at scale.

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